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How .htaccess files work in the PHP CodeIgniter framework?

Sometimes you’ll be surprised to see that the homepage is loading properly, and all other pages are showing 404, Not Found error. The most probable reason for this is your server does not support SEO friendly URL. Please follow the steps to check with the issue. Verify if a .htaccess file already exists. If there is no existing file, you will have to create a new dot .htaccess file. If you can’t find it, maybe the file is hidden. Click on the setting button, and check Show hidden files. Now, you can see the dot .htaccess file. Type the code snippet given below here. This will enable the SEO friendly URL. Access the page on your browser. It’s now loading. So, you need a dot .htaccess file to run PHP CodeIgniter, with SEO friendly URL. Code: RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]

https://medium.com/@itechscripts/how-htaccess-files-work-in-the-php-codeigniter-framework-92cf698ce9a

[]

2020-12-27 16:44:10.128000+00:00

['Web Development', 'Codeigniter', 'Web Design']

OST Community Heroes: From ICO Purchasers to Alpha Development

Daan van Tongeren, The Netherlands Alpha Project: Quote Corporate Insurance Market / CIIS Coin Daan, what made you participate in the OST ICO? I honestly didn’t know that much about blockchain technology until somewhere in October 2017. Listening to Jason Calacanis’ podcast interview with Jason Goldberg, I learned about OST / Simple Token and the project’s ambitions. It got me excited and it made me dive into the rabbit hole of crypto. I found out later about 2000 other projects in crypto land, but I still think this is one of the best use cases for utility tokens to date.” You’ve been with the Alpha program from the very beginning: Tell us about your project? Before I dive in, here’s a question I like to ask: What is the best way to appreciate the added value of new technology? Try — Use — Iterate. This was my approach for the three Alpha challenges, coming from a market I know so well as a product owner: Corporate Business Insurance. I created a sidechain powered by OST for different actors in this market, like brokers, insurers and policyholders. I came up with the idea to give incentives between the different actors and use these earned incentives (tokens) to either get a discount (Policyholder) or give an incentive to others so they deliver data in their format of choice (Broker to Insurer). Circulating value between different actors would be impossible without tokens: The transaction costs would be too high, and we’d need a third-party payment processor. OST recently published a four-year roadmap for the project: What are you most looking forward to? By far the future iterations of the Wallet features and the many ways to exchange tokens into USD, cryptocurrencies or other Branded Tokens. I think most companies aren’t looking for complex explanations about private keys: We need understandable ways to use, change and transfer tokens. I think that will be the key to success on top of all the great things OST is working on. OST already proved that their technology is easy to integrate: that box is checked. About Quote Corporate Insurance Market (CIIS Coin) The CIIS application will enable organizations in the corporate Insurance market (insurers, policyholders, agency/brokers) to improve efficiency, loyalty and reduced premium for organizations and policyholders providing data quality and timely response by donating the branded token CIIS Read more > Watch Daan’s Alpha III Video for CIIS Coin:

https://medium.com/ostdotcom/ost-community-heroes-from-ico-purchasers-to-alpha-development-da15e96cb1e7

['Jason Goldberg']

2018-08-20 11:56:40.178000+00:00

['Blockchain', 'Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin']

How To Integrate SonarQube with Jenkins For Continous Code Quality Check

Hello everyone, let us see, how to integrate Sonarqube on the Jenkins console. What is SonarQube? SonarQube is an open-source platform for inspecting the code quality continuously. It analysis code to detect bugs, code smells, and security vulnerabilities. It provides support for around 20 programming languages. What is Jenkins? On the other hand, Jenkins — is an open-source automation server that enables developers around the world to reliably build, test, and deploy their software. It facilitates continuous integration and continuous delivery (CICD process). It helps to automate the process of building, testing and deploying in a software development So, when a continuous integration and deployment is happening through Jenkins, the SonarQube can be integrated into it for reviewing the code quality, running unit tests, etc., Requirements Jenkins SonarQube Jenkins will provide a CLI to manage pipelines and builds. Let’s see how to integrate SonarQube into Jenkins, in Jenkins CLI First, install the plugin SonarQube Scanner, in Jenkins CLI under Manage Jenkins -> Manage Plugins . The plugin can be searched under the Available tab. . The plugin can be searched under the tab. Need to add Sonar username and password using the kind Username with password under Manage Jenkins -> Manage Credentials ( Mandatory when anonymous access is disabled. ) under Mandatory when anonymous access is disabled. Once the SonarQube Scanner plugin is installed, the option to configure the Sonar plugins is available under Manage Jenkins -> Configure System -> SonarQube servers Enter a name. Enter the sonar server URL. In the server, authentication token add the sonar credentials created in Manage Jenkins -> Manage Credentials . . Save/Apply the configuration Then need to install SonarQube Scanner in Manage Jenkins -> Global Tool Configuration -> SonarQube Scanner . Here a heading by name ‘SonarQube Scanner’ will already be available. in Here a heading by name will already be available. Click on the SonarQube Scanner installations button . button Enter the name, this name will be used in Jenkins Pipeline Script. Make the Install Automatically checked. checked. Select the SonarQube Scanner version need to be installed Save/Apply the configuration That’s it SonarQube is integrated with Jenkins. Next, we will look into the pipeline scripts to process the code into Sonar automatically. Jenkins Pipeline Script Create a property file in your project to store the Sonar properties like Sonar server URL, authentication details, etc. Say you can have a filename as ‘sonar-project.properties ’. This file will be read into the Pipeline script. Find below the sample content. Or you can also directly use the below contents into the pipeline script without having it in a file by maintaining them as constants. # Required Sonar Host URL sonar.host.url= sonar.login= <SONAR_AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN> # Project Key and Project name sonar.projectKey= sonar.projectName= # Should be changed for every version release sonar.projectVersion= # Path to the parent source code directory. # Example for multiple directory option, sonar.sources=srcDir1,srcDir2 sonar.sources= <Include the code path to be scanned>(For example, for Angular project it would be 'src/app/') ## Files to be excluded from sonar check sonar.exclusions= #Language sonar.language=<CODE_LANGUAGE> # Encoding of the source files sonar.sourceEncoding=UTF-8 Jenkins supports ‘Groovy’ script so that the following illustrated code is in Groovy language. Read the properties defined in the mentioned file ‘sonar-project.properties’ and store it in a variable as below, def sonarProperties = script.readFile encoding: 'UTF-8', file: "${SONAR_PROP_FILEPATH}" Load the contents in the file as properties, Properties propSonar = new Properties(); // load a properties string propSonar.load(new StringReader(sonarProperties)); Now all the properties mentioned in the file can be accessed as below, // Access sonar project key from the property file def sonarProjectKey = propSonar.getProperty("sonar.projectKey") + "_" + key.toUpperCase(); // Access sonar project name from the property file def sonarProjectName = propSonar.getProperty("sonar.projectName") + "-" + key; Next need to run the SonarQube Scanner into the pipeline script configured earlier in Jenkins console. The below code will start scanning the codebase mentioned in the properties file for the property sonar.sources . // The name: '<SonarQubeScanner>' should be the name mentioned while installing the `SonarQube Scanner` in Jenkins console at "Manage Jenkins -> Global Tool Configuration -> SonarQube Scanner". def sonarqubeScannerHome = script.tool name: '<SonarQubeScanner>', type: 'hudson.plugins.sonar' +'.SonarRunnerInstallation' Next need to process the status of the Quality gate as passed/failed to do that need to send a request as below,

https://medium.com/@priyamuthuraman/integrate-sonarqube-with-jenkins-ed76485de5d6

[]

2020-10-13 12:47:26.151000+00:00

['Pipeline', 'Sonarqube', 'Cicd', 'Jenkins']

How & Why These Negotiation & Networking Emails Yield Results

Photo from Canva.com Writing networking emails can be painful. Writing negotiation emails can drain your energy. But it doesn’t have to be when you’re taught HOW to do it well and WHY it works. Use my private email techniques and get the actual emails that have built relationships, generated millions of dollars, and saved me thousands of hours. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Don’t wonder what words to say. Know for sure using tested email scripts for your business and personal life. How many emails do we send every year? THOUSANDS? TENS OF THOUSANDS? But what do we do? We simply write what we think. That’s like walking into an interview and simply “answering their questions.” If that’s your plan, you’re going to lose the game. The class Pareto Principle still applies here. Top performers know that 80% of the work in an interview is done before you ever set foot in the room. The same is true of writing emails: 80% of the work is done before you ever write the first sentence. However, there isn’t a college or high-school course in writing emails. Most people aren’t prepared to step out into the workplace and kill it with their written communication skills. Who would teach us anyway? Who’s actually sat down and systematically studied how to reach busy people using email? How to earn the salary you want and know you’re worth receiving? We can certainly blame ourselves, but I can assure you that is not productive. Email is literally one of the most powerful tools at our disposal, yet how many of us have truly mastered how to write effective emails? How many of us have tested different approaches to sending emails that work? How I learned to write emails that get results I was struck by how many of us write emails every day, but never take even a few hours to systematically deconstruct how to write a winning email. These emails are important. These emails help us connect with mentors, hiring managers, and executives They help us get promotions They build our professional credibility I tested these in my personal and professional life. I consistently tested new ways of writing emails that were clear, concise, and inviting. And now I want to reveal the actual emails I’ve used to build relationships with CEO’s and powerful executives while removing the frustrations and saving thousands of hours. These are the 30 proven email scripts to navigate the following conversations: How to get any busy professional to respond to you How to impress an interviewer before you meet them How to negotiate your salary How to network and how to ask for introductions How to turn people into allies This powerful book will help you communicate more effectively with busy business professionals. And, you’ll learn exactly why it works. This is an experience-based book. I only cover topics I have significant first-hand experience with. You won’t find most of the knowledge I share here in any free blog post you can read online. And — I included more than just the scripts: I included the actual private framework I’ve developed to know HOW to write powerful emails that get results. You’ll learn the actual techniques I use to craft these scripts and test them. Using this “framework” approach, you won’t just copy and paste the scripts, you will learn to create your own emails for any situation you encounter. If you’re ready to save yourself time, take control of your inbox, negotiate your salary with confidence, and reach the unreachable, then I invite you to grab The Career Accelerator Toolkit. This will be the best tool you can use throughout your career. Praise From Others “I haven’t always been the best negotiator and these scripts gave me the confidence to ask for the salary I knew I was worth. I landed a role with a higher title and 15% more pay!” — Vik Scoggins “I wish I had these earlier in my career. The scripts are plug and play and I love that they share exactly why they will work. This is the best toolkit you can have in your career.” — Tina Mao “I’ve been a student of writing for years and been trying to build my network for a long time. These scripts told me exactly what to do and how to do it. Easiest purchase I have ever made.” — Chris Zaccaria “By following these negotiation scripts, I was able to increase my salary by 16% and landed a role I thought was unreachable. Thank you for teaching me interview and salary negotiation strategies! I have never felt more confident and grateful.” — William Bruce “I would HIGHLY recommend Edward as a business coach and to follow his email scripts. They are gold! They helped me land my new role when I thought it would be impossible during the pandemic.” — Hanna Vietor

https://medium.com/the-kickstarter/how-why-these-negotiation-networking-emails-yield-results-3a3d58b684d4

['Edward Gorbis']

2020-11-21 03:31:33.938000+00:00

['Negotiation', 'Email', 'Writing Tips', 'Networking', 'Communication']

Let’s find some lane lines: Udacity Self-Driving Car Engineer, Course Work

Overview Recognizing lanes on the road is one of the essential tasks which human drivers perform well. It’s possible because nature with evolution gifted us perfect sensors. Autonomous systems are only at the beginning of their epoch. It’s a non-trivial task for any robot to read and interpret data about the world around them. Computer Vision tries to eliminate the gap between us, humans, and robots. The goal of the project is to recognize lanes on the road with some limitations: The recognition isn’t real-time. There’re good weather conditions. It’s a sunny day. The car is moving along a straight line on the highway. Lines are visible. The traffic isn’t dense. The project is a part of Udacity Become a Self-Driving Car Engineer. The project setup The project consists of a notebook and assets. There’re two types of assets — images and pictures. Images are test samples (actually, frames from a video stream) stored in JPEG format with dimensions 960x540 pixels. Video files are in two forms: Two MPEG-4 with dimensions 960x540 pixels One MPEG-4 with dimensions 1280x720 pixels The idea is to implement a pipeline. It will be done in two stages: Recognize lanes on images Recognize lanes on videos A video stream is just a set of frames. The solution for images will be scaled to be used with videos. I’ll use Python and OpenCV to implement the pipeline. In the code snippets below, I avoid boilerplate code and focus on the most interesting parts. Also, for the post, I prefer to use more readable code; the implementation might differ. The code is available on GitHub. Pipeline The pipeline consists of the next steps: Apply Grayscale Transform Apply Gaussian Blur Detect Canny Edges Filter the uninteresting region out Apply Hough Transform to detect line segments Extrapolate lane lines from line segments Stabilize lane lines Adds overlayed lane lines to the original image Each step is explained below. Lanes recognition on images Consider the next original image: Test image solidWhiteCurve.jpg Apply Grayscale Transform The point is to recognize white and yellow lines. These colors will have high contrast with the road if the image is in grayscale. We need to load the image and convert it into grayscale: import matplotlib.image as mpimg import cv2 import numpy as np img = mpimg.imread('./test_images/solidWhiteCurve.jpg') gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_RGB2GRAY) Grayscale of the original image Apply Gaussian Blur The grayscale image has a lot of potential noizes. It’s possible to reduce them with the technic Gaussian Blur. The blur must not be too aggressive: the blur kernel size of 5 is enough for the project. kernel_size = 5 blur = cv2.GaussianBlur(gray, (kernel_size, kernel_size), 0) After Gaussian blur applied Detect Canny Edges At this step, we recognize lines on the image with the Canny Edge detector. The detector helps to get a set of edges. Edges are just borders between contrasting areas. The Canny detector uses two parameters: the low threshold and the high threshold. All edges with contrast below the low threshold filtered out. All edges above the high threshold are recognized as edges immediately. The rest edges between the high and low thresholds will be detected depending on their connectivity. The recommended ratio for low/high thresholds is 2:1 or 3:1. low_threshold, high_threshold = 50, 150 edges = cv2.Canny(gray, low_threshold, high_threshold) All detected edges Consider only the interesting region The outcome of the previous stage contains too many edges. Many of them are not interesting in the project. It’s possible to avoid all such edges if we consider only a specific region in front of the car: region = [(0,539), (450, 325), (490, 325), (959,539)] region = np.array([self.region], dtype=np.int32) # the method region_of_interest is available on GitHub masked = region_of_interest(edges, region, dtype=np.int32)) Now we have less data for the analyze Hough Transform Hough Transform helps us to extract shapes from the image. The trickiest part of the step is finding the correct parameters. Since such parameters are discovered, this operation provides us line segments which construct almost straight lines: rho = 1 theta = np.pi/180 threshold = 15 min_line_length = 20 max_line_gap = 10 lines = cv2.HoughLinesP(masked, rho, theta, threshold, np.array([]), minLineLength=min_line_length, maxLineGap=max_line_gap) Highlighted detected edges Extrapolation The code for this and next stages is a bit big for the post. Please, check it in the repository. At this stage, it’s possible to extrapolate these lines. To do it properly, we need to split lines onto the left and right sets of segments. How to determine if the element is part of the left or right group? With coordinates of the segment, it’s possible to calculate the slope of the element. It’s easy to make a mistake here. On the image, the Y-axis goes from top to down. For the left line, the slope is negative — X increases, but Y decreases. For the right line, the slope is positive — both X and Y increases. Segments with a minimal absolute value of the slope might be ignored because they’re almost horizontal and aren’t valuable. Edges splitter to the left and the right groups Now, it’s time to extrapolate all these segments in both groups and overlay them onto the original image. Small bonus: video without extrapolation We will discuss the stabilization later Lanes recognition on videos First attempt Let’s pipeline with the provided video files. The result is far away from the expected. Lines shake. Moreover, in the last video, there’s a short segment with a very bright asphalt. Previously used parameters for the pipeline wrongly detect lines. The video below is a short compilation of the result. Look at this strange deviation at the end of the clip. Lines even crossed! Stabilization Let’s assume we can keep coefficients of both extrapolated lines for some number of frames. Now we can calculate the means for them. If extrapolated coefficients differ significantly from their means, then we use these means from the previous frames. The resulting code contains the class LaneLinesDetector, which summarizes all the stages with the stabilization as well. The video a bit long but contains all three samples—the most complicated sample at the end. Improvements The provided workaround with stabilization is enough for the current project. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work well on more curly roads. In the next projects, this technique must be changed with more sophisticated algorithms from Machine Learning. Other possible improvements: Getting images from an infrared camera Usage of Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) and Kalman Filter Extrapolation to curves instead of to straight lines References

https://medium.com/@alexander-stadnikov/lets-find-some-lane-lines-udacity-self-driving-car-engineer-course-work-facef5c6d69

['Alexander Stadnikov']

2020-12-05 20:37:44.199000+00:00

['Autonomous Cars', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Udacity', 'Opencv', 'Computer Vision']

7 Ways to Increase Engagement on Social Media

How to Increase Engagement on Social Media One of the main reasons companies are embracing social media marketing is because it is able to provide data analysis in real time. With social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram offering robust analytics features for users to track their stories’ performance across different demographics over specific periods of time. The question becomes how can this intelligence be used by content marketers to inform strategy moving forward? & how can we increase the engagements. In the simplest of terms, social media engagements are those actions that users take when interacting with a piece of content on a platform. For example, if a user were to “like” a tweet or comment on Facebook or share your Instagram story or follow you on LinkedIn than those actions would be considered an engagement. Here are the top 7 ways to create more engagement on social media: 1. Be as active as you can be: The more the engagement, the higher the number of posts that work. In other words, there is high probability that somebody out there will respond to your posts if you post often enough. Being visible on social media certainly encourages people to engage with your brand and stay connected with it. Look for a perfect balance between being active and engaging yourself in a conversation or two because sometimes you don’t want to be seen as someone who just talks about his/her own products only but rather an intelligent marketer who engages consumers through interesting conversations related to your business model and industry at large. And if the occasional self-promotional post feels too much then try using Quuu Promote tool that can help you find relevant posts for your brand that can be shared at the right time to increase engagement. 2. Don’t underestimate the power of likes: Likes are one of the easiest ways to engage people who like your products/services. Share some images, quotes, videos etc., related to your brand along with a nice message and ask people to like them if they admire or agree with it. For example, you can share an image related to cause marketing with a certain message from your brand’s perspective and tag those influencers who support this cause on Facebook by mentioning their names in comment section asking people to give a like if they support this initiative as well as tagging those influencers directly on Twitter. 3. Respond as quickly as you can: While brands and influencers often face a lot of time lags on social media, it is never too late to respond. Brands should always try to reply quickly as soon as they get an opportunity to do so because that helps them build their reputation. When people know that the brand they are following or engaging with is generally quick in responding than it becomes more likely for them to follow this brand and engage with its posts just out of curiosity. 4. Participate whenever you can: Brands should participate wherever necessary on online platforms especially on those where conversations happen around their products/services/brands etc., Whenever there’s a relevant conversation going on (online forums, blog comments, Facebook & Twitter hashtags) and your brand has something to contribute then you should certainly share your insights by participating in the conversation. 5. Run contests: Contests are always simple, effective means to generate more engagement on social media platforms especially on Facebook. There are plenty of similar services/tools available online that can help businesses run their own contests with ease so there’s no need for them to take help of an expert unless they want to create a really huge contest with stringent rules and regulations attached. 6. Comment as often as possible (and relevant): Just like responding, commenting is yet another great way to increase engagement on Facebook posts because people tend to do it when they see that something or someone interesting has been commented on many times before by other users who have found the post engaging enough for liking, sharing etc. 7. Share sneak peeks: Keeping your fans or followers engaged with your brand is important because it helps build customer loyalty, but doing so by sharing fun stories, interesting insights, cool videos and images etc. through Facebook posts will never hurt the cause either. Therefore, instead of just featuring your products/services on Facebook walls sharing sneak peeks for upcoming events or new product launches will not only keep them engaged but also help increase traffic to your website which can certainly boost up your revenues in long run if you share relevant visual content that attracts users without making them feel like they are being disturbed all the time. Conclusion: Social media engagements can be easily increased by following simple and effective tips like these. All you need to do is monitor trending conversations on social networks, participate in those where your brand has something relevant to contribute, never ignore the power of likes, respond as quickly as possible & share sneak peeks whenever possible.

https://medium.com/@searchenginemarketer/inc-engagement-on-social-media-9a54279fb6f2

['Dhaval Shah', 'Digital Marketing Consultant', 'Seo']

2021-11-30 04:33:19.158000+00:00

['Social Media Strategy', 'Social Media Marketing', 'Social Media Engagement', 'Facebook Engagement', 'Facebook Marketing']

How to Use the Cannazon Market: A Complete Guide Buying Weed Online

Opening for business in the first quarter of 2018, Cannazon Market has quietly built up a steady and loyal following, happy to take in customers and vendors looking for new places to buy and sell cannabis-related products. It has a fair amount of positive reviews across different darknet market review sites and is considered to be relatively trustworthy compared to other such markets. In order to avoid potential interference from U.S.-based law enforcement agencies, it services non-U.S. customers only, which means that if you need items shipped to the U.S., you will have to look elsewhere (CannaHome is a worthy alternative in this regard). Cannazon is a bit different from other darknet markets as it allows you to browse the product listings before actually registering an account. This means you can get a good sense of what the market has to offer before actually registering an account. The layout of the market is quite easy to use, and it has a relatively advanced filtering options and a decent search function. This makes it simple to find not only the product you are looking for but a vendor willing to ship to your location as well. With only slightly more than 2,000 products currently being offered, Cannazon is a bit on the small side; however, many of their vendors are quite reputable and already have hundreds of trades conducted on the market. In addition to the customary acceptance of Bitcoin, Cannazon also accepts Monero, which is great for those who value their anonymity and want to pay with a coin that cannot be traced back to them via the blockchain. Cannazon takes the security of its customers very seriously, recommending users connect to it only using the privacy-based Tails OS and provide PGP encryption for all communications on the site. Cannazon was one of the first markets to employ a “wallet-less” system, meaning you never keep funds directly in a central wallet controlled by the market. Instead, it offers 2 payment options: Escrow or Finalize Early. This means that the risk of a hacking attempt or exit scam is cut down immensely, as there are no exchange-owned funds to be stolen. Escrowed funds can always be moved by the buyer and vendor and their transfer does not require action by their exchange. All-in-all, Cannazon seems to be a fairly dependable operation, with relatively little downtime and a wide selection of mirrors from which to choose. Quick Facts about Cannazon Market Link to Cannazon Market: tyiuqcmt4jvru4ojxvtcc6dv6grfxd4h5r24ijzqq562c6xcxa52zdyd.onion Founded: March 2018 Number of listings: 2,110 (as of February 2020) Listing categories: Weed, Hash, Concentrates, Edibles, Seeds, Other Coins accepted: Bitcoin (BTC), Monero (XMR) Multisignature escrow: Yes Finalize Early (FE) Allowed: Yes Vendor bond: $250 Before Getting Started There are a few basic concepts which you need to be familiar with before attempting to get started using Cannazon Market or any other darknet market. First, you will need to download and install the Tor browser which will allow you to connect to websites on the darknet (of which Cannazon Market is one). While it is true that the Tor browser masks your connection to sites that you are visiting when using it, your IP provider can still be aware that you are accessing the Tor network, so if you value true anonymity when connecting to the darknet it is suggested that you purchase a VPN (virtual private network) service in order to remove the connection between your IP and Tor. If you’d like an extra sense of privacy, it would be a good idea to install the Tails OS, which forces all internet connectivity through TOR and can be installed on a USB drive. After Tails is shut down, all traces of activity disappear from its history. More information on how to install the Tails OS can be found here. The installation of Tails is not absolutely required as you can still access all features of Cannazon using a regular Tor browser, though Cannazon does recommend its usage. You will also obviously need to have some experience with buying and sending cryptocurrency. Learn the basics of sending Bitcoin from one address to another, how to identify and input Bitcoin addresses, how to assign transaction fees, and what a blockchain confirmation is as well. Sending BTC or any cryptocurrency to the wrong address can be a costly, irreparable error for which there is no recourse, so it’s good to have a handle on how to move it before attempting to do so for the first time. Beware of Phishing Sites One of the most important things you need to know before attempting to register an account at any darknet market is what the official URL(s) of the market website is (are). Many darknet markets are subject to phishing attempts in which a forged copy of the website is made and links to it are placed upon the web in an attempt to fool unsuspecting users into entering their user names and passwords into it. The phisher will then use your credentials to log in to the actual market website and drain whatever funds you may have available there. The best way to avoid phishing websites is to only copy/paste links that you have either previously stored for safe-keeping or those that can be found on the Cannazon section at DarkNetOnions. This website only hosts links verified by the markets themselves via signature from their PGP key, and it is considered to be one of the most trusted resources for darkweb links around. Bookmark http://cannak7ftxn4tkye.onion and save it for later user. How to Register an Account After locating a Cannazon Market URL on our working mirrors links, or on DarkNetOnions, copy it and paste it into your Tor browser. The landing page should look like this: After entering the captcha, press “Enter” to continue. You will be directed to the market home page, which looks like this: From this page, hover over the words My Account to bring up the “Register” option. Click on that to go to the account registration screen, which looks like this: Create a unique user name that is not associated with any of your online identities, enter a strong password of 8 or more characters (a random combination of lower- and upper-case letters and numbers is recommended), repeat entry of the password, then enter in a Password Reset code which can be used to recover your password if you should forget it (ideally something easier to remember than your password), and repeat its entry as well. Before proceeding, be sure you have saved your user name, password and password reset code in a safe place where you will remember where it is. After you have saved this information, press the green “Register” button. Your account will have been created, and you will be transported back to the market home page. At this point, there are a few more things you need to do before you can make purchases. First, hover over your user name to the right of the top search bar. You will notice that there is a red stop sign and an orange warning sign next to the Account Settings tab. Click that tab to be brought to your Account Settings page. Here, you will need to enter in a Bitcoin (BTC) address (or XMR address if you are using Monero) for refunds, and your PGP public key so vendors and other members can encrypt communications to you. Next, copy and paste your bitcoin master public key into the text box below, under the words Multisig configuration. The easiest way to generate a compressed public key is visit coinb.in/#newAddress and click “Generate” without changing any of the settings. This will generate a Bitcoin address, public key and private key; however you will only need the public key (the middle box): You will not need to remember the generated Bitcoin address and private key — but you will definitely need the public key to sign off on 2/3 multisignature transactions. After you have entered your refund address(es), Bitcoin public key and PGP public key, press the green “Update Settings” button. If everything was entered correctly, you will be transferred to the next screen, which will display a message encrypted with your PGP public key. After decrypting the message and entering the code provided in the message, it should look like this: Enter in your code from the decrypted message and press “Save PGP Key”. If the code was entered correctly, you will be returned to the Account Settings page and see a message that says Profile was successfully saved! at the top of the screen. You will notice that the red stop sign no longer appears next to the Account Settings tab, but the orange caution sign is still there. This is a reminder to activate Two-Factor Authentication (2-FA) for your account, which will require that you decrypt a message using your PGP key upon each login. If you consider yourself to be big on security and want to minimize your chances of being phished, check the Two-factor authentication box and once again click “Update Settings”. Browsing the Market Cannazon Market’s layout is quite user friendly and you are provided with multiple filter options to narrow your search for the product which you are searching. When first logging in, you are shown popular items by default in the main screen, which are then later replaced by items related to your previous searches. In addition to a general search bar at the top of the screen, you can browse by product category, which include the following: Weed (divided into Indica, Sativa, Hybrid, and Other) Hash (divided into Afghan, Morocco, Lebanese, and Other) Concentrates (capsules, sprays, vape cartridges, resin, wax, and others) Edibles (divided into Cookies, Sweets, and Other) Seeds (for home growing) Other (pre-rolls, hemp oil, cleansing products, etc.) Down below the product categories are the filter options, which include: Search term Price (min/max) Price per unit (min/max) Vendor (by name) Currency (Bitcoin or Monero) Shipping To / Shipping From (by country) You will of course want to narrow down the selection by the country which you reside, which will immediately eliminate at least some products, so don’t make your search too narrow or it may yield zero results. Each product listing will display the price (in euros, which can be changed to other currencies in your Account Settings), description, vendor name, positive vs. negative ratings, as well as Ships from and Ships to countries. Placing an Order After you’ve found a product you wish to purchase, click on it to bring up its details. Here you will find the basic information about the product: price in euros, payment method(s), currencies accepted, and price in accepted currencies. Before making a purchase, we recommend clicking on the vendor name to bring up pertinent details about the vendor, like their refund policy and user ratings. Cannazon operates using a thumbs up / thumbs down rating system, meaning you can see the total number of positive vs. negative ratings a vendor has received from their customers. You can also see their total number of completed orders, their account creation date, last login date, and rating totals received on other markets (if applicable). If you are satisfied with the vendor details, return to the product listing page and click the green “Add to Cart” button. You will then be transported to your cart page, which looks like this: Here you can adjust the shipping method to that which is desired, as well as the quantity, payment method, and currency of payment. For the purposes of this guide, we will only be making a payment in Bitcoin and using the Escrow payment option (for an explanation of the difference between Escrow and Finalize Early, you can read their respective sections below). If you are content that everything is to your satisfaction, press the “Proceed to Checkout” button. You will then be brought to the Checkout screen. Here you will enter your encrypted shipping details (name and address) for the vendor. While there is a “PGP Auto Encrypt” checkbox next to the shipping details field, it is recommended by Cannazon that you encrypt the details yourself, using your own PGP client. To find the vendor’s PGP public key, scroll down to the bottom of the screen. You will need to import the vendor’s PGP public key into your PGP client which can be done by saving it as a text file and using the client’s Import function. After this has been done, write your ship-to name and address in a text file, copy it to your clipboard, and close the text file without saving it. Then use your PGP client to encrypt the contents of your clipboard using the PGP key of the vendor as the recipient. Paste the encrypted contents into the encrypted message text field. It should look something like this when done correctly: Next, check the “I have read and agree to the vendor`s rules” box underneath, then scroll down a bit to find a small captcha-type problem where you are asked to enter a certain character displayed in your current URL. After entering in the requested letter, click “Place your order”. Next, you will be brought to the Order Details screen. Here you will be presented with a Bitcoin address to which you will make a payment for the exact amount shown above the payment address. You will have half an hour to complete the transaction before the order is re-priced and must be re-entered. Once payment has been detected, the order will be marked as paid. Once your Bitcoin transaction has been confirmed by the network, the order information will be passed along to the vendor, who will begin preparing your order. You will receive updates about the status of your order in the form of notifications. After it has been received, you will need to “Finalize” the order so that payment may be released to the vendor. If your order was not received after the time period promised by the vendor, or if you have a problem with the quality of your order, you can “Dispute” it. If the Cannazon staff decides in your favor, your funds will be returned to you. If they decide in the favor of the vendor, the funds will be sent to them. What does Escrow mean? Escrow is the default purchase option used by Cannazon Market. For each purchase made on the market, a new multisignature address is generated representing that particular transaction, which is what your bitcoin public key is used to sign. Unlike most other bitcoin addresses, a multisig address requires the signature of 2 out of 3 parties assigned control of the address (or 2 of 2 in the case of Finalize Early). This means that a combination of the vendor and exchange can initiate the transaction to move the funds to the vendor, or if the exchange is offline for some reason, the buyer and vendor can still perform the transaction without the involvement of the exchange. The reason why the Escrow option is default and recommended by Cannazon is because it means your funds can only be released to the vendor after you have received your product and are satisfied with it. If a dispute arises, and the market decides in your favor, your coins will be refunded back to the refund address you provided. If the market decides in the favor of the vendor, they will co-sign a transaction to release the funds to the vendor. Either way, this means that the funds are never held directly by Cannazon, meaning they cannot be stolen from them or by them in the event of a sudden closure. What does Finalize Early (FE) mean? Vendors who are somewhat established can earn and enable Finalize Early (FE) privileges, which means they are allowed to bypass the escrow holding period if the customer chooses to make a purchase using this method. FE is something of a rarity on Cannazon and only granted to vendors who are highly trusted, having completed several hundred orders, with a total rating of 90%+ positive feedback. Funds for FE listings are non-refundable by the market but can be refunded by the vendor at any time. Be sure to read the most recent user feedback of a vendor before deciding to purchase a product from such a vendor who has their listings set to FE. Cannazon’s support will likely be unable to help you if you should have a problem with a FE purchase, and your only recourse will be leaving the vendor a negative rating. How do I know if I am buying an Escrow or Direct Pay listing? Each listing for a product will say “Multisig Escrow” and/or “FE” in the product listing page. Keep in mind that just because a vendor is allowed FE privileges, it does not mean that all of their listings will be set with that option; some may be escrow-only. Also remember that just because a vendor has FE enabled, it does not guarantee that your transaction will go smoothly. Buyers usually have the option of purchase through Escrow, but some vendors will have the additional option of FE, and some will have FE only. Conclusion You are now ready to get started using the Cannazon Market. By practicing good security and privacy measures, as well as some basic common sense, you are likely to have a positive experience here so long as you implement the suggestions provided for you in this guide. Always remember that understanding what you are doing is essential before you get started doing it, especially when it comes to something as sensitive as cryptocurrency and darknet markets. While Cannazon Market is considered to be a well-respected operation among the community, keep in mind that safety and security are of the foremost importance when transacting on any darknet market. Therefore, don’t hesitate to seek out answers to questions about issues you may have before making a purchase. P.S. Currently, there are more darknets markest which offers a growing variety of Weed and Cannabis-related products, called CannaHome Market. We have also reviewd this market and wrote the CannaHome Market buying guide for anyone who might be interested to further explore and shop around. Another big emerging darknet market is Dark0de.

https://medium.com/@darkfailorg/how-to-use-the-cannazon-market-a-complete-guide-buying-weed-online-6cb4ccb71ea4

['Darknet Markets']

2021-04-17 06:32:06.897000+00:00

['Drugs', 'Onion', 'Darknet', 'Market', 'Weed']

How to Build a Reporting Dashboard using Dash and Plotly

A method to select either a condensed data table or the complete data table. One of the features that I wanted for the data table was the ability to show a “condensed” version of the table as well as the complete data table. Therefore, I included a radio button in the layouts.py file to select which version of the table to present: Code Block 17: Radio Button in layouts.py The callback for this functionality takes input from the radio button and outputs the columns to render in the data table: Code Block 18: Callback for Radio Button in layouts.py File This callback is a little bit more complicated since I am adding columns for conditional formatting (which I will go into below). Essentially, just as the callback below is changing the data presented in the data table based upon the dates selected using the callback statement, Output('datatable-paid-search', 'data' , this callback is changing the columns presented in the data table based upon the radio button selection using the callback statement, Output('datatable-paid-search', 'columns' . Conditionally Color-Code Different Data Table cells One of the features which the stakeholders wanted for the data table was the ability to have certain numbers or cells in the data table to be highlighted based upon a metric’s value; red for negative numbers for instance. However, conditional formatting of data table cells has three main issues. There is lack of formatting functionality in Dash Data Tables at this time. If a number is formatted prior to inclusion in a Dash Data Table (in pandas for instance), then data table functionality such as sorting and filtering does not work properly. There is a bug in the Dash data table code in which conditional formatting does not work properly. I ended up formatting the numbers in the data table in pandas despite the above limitations. I discovered that conditional formatting in Dash does not work properly for formatted numbers (numbers with commas, dollar signs, percent signs, etc.). Indeed, I found out that there is a bug with the method described in the Conditional Formatting — Highlighting Cells section of the Dash Data Table User Guide: Code Block 19: Conditional Formatting — Highlighting Cells The cell for New York City temperature shows up as green even though the value is less than 3.9.* I’ve tested this in other scenarios and it seems like the conditional formatting for numbers only uses the integer part of the condition (“3” but not “3.9”). The filter for Temperature used for conditional formatting somehow truncates the significant digits and only considers the integer part of a number. I posted to the Dash community forum about this bug, and it has since been fixed in a recent version of Dash. *This has since been corrected in the Dash Documentation. Conditional Formatting of Cells using Doppelganger Columns Due to the above limitations with conditional formatting of cells, I came up with an alternative method in which I add “doppelganger” columns to both the pandas data frame and Dash data table. These doppelganger columns had either the value of the original column, or the value of the original column multiplied by 100 (to overcome the bug when the decimal portion of a value is not considered by conditional filtering). Then, the doppelganger columns can be added to the data table but are hidden from view with the following statements: Code Block 20: Adding Doppelganger Columns Then, the conditional cell formatting can be implemented using the following syntax: Code Block 21: Conditional Cell Formatting Essentially, the filter is applied on the “doppelganger” column, Revenue_YoY_percent_conditional (filtering cells in which the value is less than 0). However, the formatting is applied on the corresponding “real” column, Revenue YoY (%) . One can imagine other usages for this method of conditional formatting; for instance, highlighting outlier values. The complete statement for the data table is below (with conditional formatting for odd and even rows, as well highlighting cells that are above a certain threshold using the doppelganger method): Code Block 22: Data Table with Conditional Formatting I describe the method to update the graphs using the selected rows in the data table below.

https://medium.com/p/4f4257c18a7f#0bad

['David Comfort']

2019-03-13 14:21:44.055000+00:00

['Dashboard', 'Dash', 'Towards Data Science', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization']

Welcoming Vaginismus — A Tiny Memoir: Fiamma’s Story

Many thanks to Victor Yrigoyen for the illustrations. Check out his website and Instagram. “For many, the psychological impact of vaginismus can be even more agonizing than the physical pain. The stigma of “virginity,” combined with the lacking mention of vaginismus in public dialogue, society’s insistence that “men need sex,” and the social pressure on women to have children by a certain age, can all contribute to a dramatic decrease in the person’s self-esteem. As a result, some individuals with vaginismus may develop depression, or anxiety about sex. For many, the inability to have sex, or fear of sex, can lead to the repeated downfall of relationships; others resist dating altogether to avoid later disappointment.” -Leah de Roy, Vaginismus: The “Myth” of Sexual Disorders OK, You Can Put It In Now I was seventeen the first time I tried having intercourse. I was hopelessly in love with my boyfriend, who never pressured me into anything, but with whom the chemistry was so strong that my vaginal lubricant would drip down my legs when we started making out. The first time he touched my vulva I got so turned on I hyperventilated. We had to stop and wait for my hands to stop tingling and my blood pressure to come back up. I’d never considered having penetrative sex before. Not even with my previous boyfriend. I was very clear in my head that I wasn’t ready, and I never felt like I owed him anything. He obviously wanted to, but was decent enough to take no for an answer, and didn’t push me further. This time it was different. I just knew I was ready. I knew I wanted to. We’d already had numerous non-penetrative sex sessions, and orgasms where easy to find for both of us. For me, a 17-year-old sort of late bloomer who had never masturbated and was just discovering orgasms, penises, and crazy, head-over-heels romantic love, penetration simply seemed like the natural next step. This time I knew I was ready, my body was asking for it. His penis was so beautiful I even changed my mind about dicks being gross-that’s probably just called growing up. So when we finally decided to “have sex” (I’m using quotes because in fact, all the other stuff we were doing before was sex)*, I had no expectations other than it being pretty awesome. We didn’t plan it down to the specifics, we didn’t light up candles, we didn’t care if it was particularly romantic, we just wanted to enjoy each other. We were in love. I didn’t grow up in a religious environment; I didn’t have any ideological guilt associated to sex, nor did I think it made me less worthy to “lose my virginity”. I wasn’t even thinking about what that expression meant. That’s how above it all I felt. I was just excited. *Like, have you ever wondered why we only equate sex with intercourse (i.e. penis in vagina penetration), and none of the other stuff you can do with one or multiple partners (masturbation, cunnilingus, felatio, anal penetration, etc.) is considered sex by most people? Because the former is how you make babies. And guess what patriarchy cares about. Not women’s pleasure, that’s for sure. I wasn’t close with my mom as a teenager, and my older sister, eight-and-a-half years my senior, had been living abroad since I was nine. We were close, but not so close that she was my confidant on these matters. So, I basically had no one more experienced than me to talk about sex with. Imagine my surprise when, after kissing and touching each other for a while, when I knew I was wet and very turned on, I asked my boyfriend to put on a condom and penetrate me, and it was as if somebody was tearing my vagina open. I knew first-time sex could be painful, but this pain was piercing, as if I was literally being torn apart. At the same time, his penis simply couldn’t go in. There was no way in. It was as if a solid brick wall had been erected (yes) in my vaginal opening. It was as if there was no vaginal opening. But the pain was very real. My legs immediately, reflexively closed. All arousal had disappeared. We kept trying. That night, and others. We held on to the hope that this would just be a very painful first time, that we’d push through and eventually have happy, pain-free intercourse. But it didn’t get better. The more we tried, the more my body would seem to respond instinctively to the memory of the previous painful attempts. Each time it took less for my legs to close shut and my arousal to vanish. I eventually stopped wanting to have sex altogether. All The Doctors I went to the gynaecologist, hoping she’d tell me what was wrong with me and how to fix it: maybe my vagina was too small? Maybe there was some kind of physical abnormality that could be operated, and I’d be able to have sex with my boyfriend, like a normal person. I sat across from her in front of her desk and explained the situation, she nodded and smiled, then said, “OK, let’s take a look and see what’s going on. “Now, since you’re a virgin, I can’t use a speculum, so I’m just going to insert my pinky finger.” I remember her putting on her black disposable gloves and lathering some lubricant on her pinky before approaching my vagina. I can’t recall if she gave me a heads up or if she just went ahead and inserted it, but I remember the cold, aseptic room, and again that piercing pain, as if her finger was stabbing me. She asked me to breath and relax, but all I could do was contract and cry uncomfortable noises. She kept her pinky inside of me and said “relax, I’m not doing anything, I’m not moving my finger. Just breathe. “ But I couldn’t relax. It hurt too much. I just couldn’t. I got dressed and she explained that my vagina was perfectly normal. What I was experiencing was psychological. “It usually comes from fear of pain, fear of pregnancy or previous trauma”. I couldn’t think how any of those would apply to me. I can’t remember what she said after that. I think I was in shock. I asked her what “the solution” was, or something to that effect, and she probably suggested I go to therapy. I just remember leaving and feeling like all my hopes had been crushed. There was no surgery, there was no fix. I’d been given a sort of lukewarm sentence… of what though? I just knew I was broken. That was the only diagnosis. I’d gone from being this loopy head-in-the-clouds teenager with no concrete interest in sex and zero masturbation experience, to being a girl with a high sex drive who masturbated often and was able to have multiple orgasms, to then being the hopeless, involuntary virgin who couldn’t shake off her old, useless, stigmatized hymen. By the way, the hymen, as most of us understand it, isn’t a real thing. (Watch the video, you’ll see what I mean.) If, before this, I was perpetually horny, all of a sudden I was never in the mood for sexual intimacy with my boyfriend. I still loved him, but he’d become more like a best friend. I just didn’t want to kiss or touch him. Months went by before I could understand what I was feeling, whether I was going through a temporary slump or I simply didn’t want him anymore. I finally realized our sexual relationship had been completely eroded. It was a skeleton, only left standing because of his own, uncorrupted desire for me. We broke up. I spent my teens being ashamed of my condition and not talking about it with anyone. Over the years, I went to a handful of different doctors who gave me each exactly zero useful information about what I was going through. One delivered to me with a big smile the happy news that what I had was only psychological-that word again; another tried giving me anesthesia shots around my vulva hoping that it would ease the tension in my pelvic area so he could examine me properly-spoiler alert: it didn’t work; yet another one suggested, seeing my short, slicked back, light blue hair, that perhaps I was a lesbian, which would explain my repulsion for penises entering my vagina. At the same time, I was afraid, and I wasn’t ready to face the problem practically: it took me years to start my own research about it. I think I was secretly hoping it would just evaporate. It didn’t ( duh). But eventually, as I started studying my own brain and understanding my psyche, things started slowly evolving. One finger could go in without pain, then two, until it actually felt good, not just uncomfortable. But then if I tried actual penile-vaginal intercourse, it was a no go. A few months later, it all happened by chance, almost. I was hooking up with a guy, and we weren’t trying to “get it in” or anything. We were just enjoying each other. He was sort of massaging my vulva with his penis, and it felt good. I wasn’t expecting anything else to happen, which is why I was very surprised when he said, “I’m inside.” Granted, his was not the largest penis, but it was a penis. Any penis was better than no penis, at this point. For the first time in my life, I had someone’s dick inside of me and was actually enjoying the feeling. After that, I went to the bathroom and cried with happiness. I was 25 years old. Well, At Least It Works? Having finally gone through with the actual penetration (I wasn’t broken after all!) I thought things would only go exponentially better, but then I realized that healing is not a linear path. It depended on my mood, my hormones, my level of arousal, the context, the person I was with, his penis, our chemistry-or lack thereof. There were many more frustrating times after that, but with each one I learned something about my vaginismus, and I built on it. I realized that the less pressure there was on me performing (i.e. being penetrated), the higher the possibility of it actually happening. At some point, I was lucky enough to date a guy who was completely OK with me not wanting to try penetration right away, who was loving and understanding. We also had great sexual chemistry, and were eventually able to have penetrative sex that I truly enjoyed. What I discovered with him was a pull on my part towards rougher sex. I couldn’t explain it at first, but I realized that the further away I was from controlling my own body-something my mind wants to do all the time-the more pleasure I could experience. One day I asked him to grab my arms while I was face down on the bed-I wanted to feel powerless, unable to control the situation, to take my hands off the wheel. There was a release, a freedom that came from that. Something shifted. What was different? This is too broad to get into it in now, but I do want to point out that since this is mainly a condition of the mind (even though the muscular reflexes have been memorized by your body and do need some help from you in being re-educated), playing with the idea of control might help loosen yours. For me, introducing some forms of BDSM into my sex life has allowed me to, as it were, tone down the vagina micromanagement. “Good stress” as Naomi Wolf, author of the book Vagina, refers to “bondage and discipline, sadomasochistic play [and] submission fantasies” (when consensual, of course), is a wonderful way to distract the mind from everything that isn’t working (“Am I cold? My nose itches. What’s that smell? I think I heard the bell ring. Shit, I forgot to feed my cat!” playing ad infinitum) and into what is, into the present moment, into your senses. As Emily Nagoski points out in her book Come As You Are, “If your partner spanks your butt while you’re in the middle of tying your toddler’s shoes, it’s annoying. But if your partner spanks your butt in the middle of sex, it can feel very, very sexy indeed. […] Sexual “submission” requires relaxing into trust […] and allowing your partner to take control. In this explicitly erotic, highly trusting, and consensual context, your brain is open and receptive, ready to interpret any and all sensations as erotic. And in a culture where women have to spend so much time with the brakes on, saying no, it’s no wonder we have fantasies about abandoning all control, relaxing into absolute trust […] and allowing ourselves to experience sensation.” (emphasis added) After ending that relationship I spent 3 years willingly single. I needed to understand myself better, and I felt I couldn’t do that with a partner. The next few years were confusing. It’s hard for a single woman with vaginismus to find ways to experience her sexuality safely around others. So I sort of became celibate. I spent a long time not even searching for sexual contact with others. That was quite freeing. But after a while it became its own cage. When I did want to engage with others again, I didn’t know how. It was like I’d isolated myself for so long that I’d forgotten how to make contact. I felt painfully related to Olivia Laing’s account of her period of extreme isolation living in New York city when I read The Lonely City (which I recommend, by the way.) Coincidentally, I’d also moved to a new, huge city, and found it even harder to connect or feel close enough to someone to share my vaginismus. But I did, a couple of times, and my fears materialized. Men either ghosted me or said jokingly, after being sexually intimate with me, “We didn’t really have sex anyway.” Sure, he was kidding, but it didn’t matter. I knew he meant it. We all do. Finally, I sort of gave up. I gave up on the idea of having any answers or fixing myself. I started reading Nagoski’s book Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life. Guess what. It did. The book isn’t about vaginismus or painful intercourse, although it mentions it in passing a couple of times. However, her outlook on self-acceptance made me question deeply my relationship with my sexuality, my body, my pleasure and my pain. Although the book is mostly oriented towards getting cisgender women to understand and access their pleasure, and it does a great job at it, what changed me was towards the end of the book, right before the final conclusions. There’s a section titled This is it. Nagoski says, “What if… this is a radical idea, but just go with me: what if you felt that way-”This is it”-about your sexual functioning? What if the sexuality you have right now is the sexuality you get? What if this is it? […] The day you were born, the world had a choice about what to teach you about your body. [T]he world taught you to feel critical of and dissatisfied with your sexuality and your body. You were taught to value and expect something from your sexuality that does not match what your sexuality actually is. You were told a story about what would happen in your sexual life, and that story was false. You were lied to.” And the final stroke: “It’s not how you feel. It’s how you feel about how you feel.” Let me say that again: It’s not how you feel. It’s how you feel about how you feel. She was right. I was choosing to be a victim of my condition. I was feeling guilty about feeling pain. But what if this was it for my sexuality? What if it never got better? Would I spend the rest of my life feeling sorry for myself, avoiding sexual intimacy out of fear of rejection? How was this my fault? How was it my problem if men couldn’t deal with me not being able to receive vaginal penetration? Why should I feel bad about it at all? So I decided to change my perspective: I took penetration off the table completely. Instead of seeing it as a limitation, I embraced it as a choice. Instead of portraying myself as a victim to my situation, I decided to accept my body the way it was. It changed everything. Shall We Talk About It Now? I’d never seen vaginismus openly portrayed in pop culture until I saw this episode of Netflix’s show Sex Education. I felt it was somehow revolutionary. I’m serious. We don’t talk about vaginismus, nobody tells you what it is or how to treat it. Most doctors don’t really know much about it. I guess female pleasure is not a priority: we are expected to be resilient to pain (to prepare for childbirth), but if intercourse is painful for women, that doesn’t seem to be an issue important enough for doctors to care about. Nagoski quotes Caroline Pukall, coauthor of When Sex Hurts: A Woman’s Guide to Banishing Sexual Pain on this matter: “She pointed out that some women tolerate pain with sex “just because they have this belief that, “I guess some pain is to be expected .” “ “She went on, “There’s something about women bearing pain longer than they need to,” perhaps in other domains of their life, as well as in sex. They tolerate pain because they think that is their only option, that effective treatments aren’t available (they are!), or that the hassle of seeking treatment isn’t worth the potential benefit (it is!). And medical professionals sometimes reinforce this tendency by not taking pain seriously or assuming that if there is no infection or injury, the pain is “all in her head.” “ And so you grow up feeling broken, malfunctioning, and assume it like a sexual death sentence. If the people who are supposed to take care of your health and reproductive wellbeing don’t talk about it, why would you? Why would you think it’s OK to talk about it? You don’t really know what it is that you have, there seems to be no apparent cure, you don’t even understand the root of the problem, but you’re expected to be able to have sex like everyone else around you. So you do what patriarchy taught you: you feel shame. You feel like an aberration. It becomes a secret. You don’t want to tell your family or your friends. You wouldn’t even know how to explain it. When you do, people don’t really get it, you can see it in their faces, and the best they can do is brush it off saying things like, “Just keep trying, it always hurts in the beginning.” Because, again, pain is to be expected if you’re a woman, and we should bear it, as the cosmic punishment for being born with a vagina. Whether it is sexual pain, abuse from our partner, unwanted pregnancies: society simply expects us to put up with it. Whenever you tell guys you’ve started dating about your vaginismus, they look at you as if you were an alien. This only makes you feel more broken and alone: nobody seems to understand that the pain and discomfort you feel are not something you can just “push through”. It’s as if at your vaginal gate there was a keeper who will not let anyone pass. A vaginal Gandalf, if you will. It’s non-negotiable. Each time you try, everything shuts down. It’s not just the pain: there is no way in. It’s as if, suddenly, there was no gate, no vagina, no space whatsoever. “This Is It” Marian Wright Edelman said, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” She was referring to being a black woman in a culture where women of color aren’t portrayed in positions of power or leadership, but in a way that statement could also be applied to other kinds of invisibility: if you don’t see people with your same struggles portrayed in the media, and nobody talks about them, it’s very hard to find your way, understand your body, come up with a solution. It took me 13 years to come to terms with this condition, and I mostly did it alone. But we don’t have to. More women than we think suffer from painful intercourse, whether it starts with their first attempt at penetration or is triggered by an event later in life (in this case it wouldn’t be vaginismus precisely but a broader term to encompass all intercourse pain and its different causes: dyspareunia). Visibility is the first and most powerful step in deconstructing toxic narratives. Let’s talk about this. Let’s share our stories. Let’s be seen. Let’s re-educate our minds and our culture to understand that female pleasure does matter, independently of procreation, and that sex isn’t just penile-vaginal intercourse. Foreplay is sex. Virginity is a construct, the hymen is not as important as you thought, and you should always, always have some lube at hand-Oh, did I forget to mention? Lube makes life better.* *Quoting (well, paraphrasing) again our beloved Emily Nagoski: even if you’ve done everything right (aka prolonged foreplay with the right partner) and you feel at the top of your arousal, your body might not create enough lubricant to sustain an extended session of intercourse, and that’s OK! Just buy some good lube, slather it on, and have fun! No shame. So ask yourself: how are you feeling? And how do you feel about how you feel? Make a choice to let those feelings be OK. Whatever they are. It won’t change things with the snap of a finger. But beginning that process is the most important thing you can do. For you, and for other women as well. Now that you know that there are many more of us out there, and that you can reach out and talk about it, remember that penetration is just one way of getting pleasure, and the fact that some people might think it’s the only way or the best way shouldn’t stop you from having lots and lots of delicious orgasms. - Fiamma Aleotti (31 years old, Berlin, Germany) P.S. You can check out Fiamma’s work on her blog and on Instagram @fiammaleotti. If you’re still unclear about what vaginismus is, here are some interesting pieces on the topic: My Body Won’t Let Me Have Sex Tightly Wound The Making of Tightly Wound Vaginismus: The “Myth” of Sexual Disorders And some recommended reads: Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life, Emily Nagoski Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters-And How to Get It, Laurie Mintz Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit, & Joy in the Root of the Female Body, Tami Lynn Kent

https://medium.com/@pain-free-and-intimate/welcoming-vaginismus-a-tiny-memoir-fiammas-story-68aea196b6f

['Katrin With Love']

2021-01-20 19:20:19.792000+00:00

['Sex', 'Womens Health', 'Vaginismus', 'Painful Sex', 'Sexuality']

4 Don’ts to Get You Moving Abroad Tomorrow

The drawn out screech of heavy screen door opening… The muffled grind of a house key turning in its lock… The tick…tick…tick of small luggage wheels skipping over the sidewalk… One last deafening clang as the screen door slams us adieu. It’s 6:00 AM, Tuesday July 28, 2015 when the six of us tick…tick…tick… away from our emptied home and into two large minivans. In hand are four musical instruments, four checked-size bags, six backpacks, and one travel kennel housing a Newfoundland/ Basset Hound mix (picture Falcor from The Neverending Story with shaggy black hair). That’s all we claim as essential for this new adventure. With a deafening swarm of emotions buzzing in my head, we back out of the deserted driveway. As four little boys anxiously look back to the only home they’ve ever known disappearing around the corner, we push off into the unknown. “The journey not the arrival matters.” — T.S. Eliot How does one take a family of seven, strip down their lives to what they can push around on 3 Salt Lake City Airport Terminal Smarte Cartes, and move 8,000+ kilometers around the globe? It might sound impossible to you (or just really, really hard), but here are the four key lessons (plus a bonus) that we learned in making the leap. First: DON’T ignore the itch My wife and I were still newlyweds when we knew we wanted this adventure for our family. Pre-kids, pre-puppy, pre-home mortgage, we knew where travel took us intellectually and emotionally. Our desire was to make sure that travel (in the form of authentic cultural exchange) became the most vibrant threads in the tapestry of our family’s life story. If you’ve gotten this far in the article it means you’ve got a similar itch for life experience that crosses borders and connects you with a world of possibility. Perhaps you’re looking to wade into a short-term stint abroad (60–90 days); perhaps you’re looking for a long-term adventure. Whatever the itch, the best piece of advice I can offer is don’t ignore it! Once you stop dancing around the idea and instead take it by the hand, I promise it will take the lead. Where it leads you will undoubtedly be into the uncommon, the unfamiliar and that’s precisely where you’ll find a better version of yourself, your couple, or your family. As Thoreau once famously penned (after following an itch of his own): “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” Don’t let the itch pass you by for another wanderer on the platform; it’s you reminding you there’s a better way of life just waiting to be discovered. Tip 2: DON’T hesitate to ditch everything that doesn’t matter in order to get there (HINT: this is 98% of everything you own) Think it sounds hard to sell the stuff you own in order to fund your next adventure? Believe me, it’s not. People sell their homes, their cars, or get out of leases everyday for a lot less important reasons. As soon as we decided on trading Salt Lake City for the French countryside, Craigslist became our best friend. We listed bikes, appliances, toys, and any other random belonging that was either valuable or intriguing enough to catch one’s eye. For everything else, we held a massive garage sale. By then end of the day, between friends, family, and complete strangers we had sold or donated 90% of our stuff. We’ve never felt so liberated from life, so light on our feet, so ready to soar. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. …Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain NOTE: Looking back, we still held on to at least 5% too much. Don’t make the same mistake: dump and jump! You won’t regret simplifying no matter how long you plan on being abroad. Tip 3: DON’T look back (or sideways, or any other direction but forward) Okay, seeing as you’ve gotten this far, humor me with a quick exercise: Imagine where you’d like to be six months or a year from now. Now close your eyes for 30 seconds and try to picture the sights, hear the sounds, even smell the aroma of your dream destination. Seriously, close your eyes and do it, now for at least 30 seconds. Now honestly ask yourself: What’s one thing I can do to take a single step closer to that destination? Resolve to do it today: Google the average cost of living, check out monthly rentals on Airbnb, read up on visa requirements. It won’t cost you a thing but could become a defining bookmark in the start an exciting next chapter. At some point early on in your journey, you’ll discover that picking up and seeking the unknown is only limited by you. Once we decided as a family to make the move abroad, doors started appearing. It sounds cliché but it’s true, trust me. The trick is, you have to be willing to make the effort of reaching out, turning the handle, and passing through each threshold as they appear. “A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” — Lao Tzu Don’t be fooled, however. Walking through unmarked thresholds takes time and, more importantly, energy. Looking forward & moving forward will accelerate your journey exponentially. Looking back, sideways, or any other direction will only delay your departure by months or, worse, a lifetime. Tip 4: DON’T worry about what you’re leaving behind For us, by far the hardest part of leaving America was family. We have an amazing extended family that has consistently been part of what matters most in our life. When we’re having hard times abroad, it’s family that we look back to longingly, wishing they were close by to make us feel comfortable and cozy. Leaving friends, family, an office, or simply a comfortable routine behind can be tough, I’ll admit it was for me. However, looking back now I know I would never trade the space that has been created in the life of our family through simplification. You would think living abroad would be complicated (and it is), but it’s also hugely liberating. What you will learn is that walking away from your inherited day-to-day gives you the freedom to define a new way of life. It’s a transformative process, guaranteed. Our hope is that in walking away from what was cozy and comfortable, from the easy-to-fall-back on when things get rough, that we’re developing new habits and strengths that will make us better people no matter where we go in the future. **BONUS** Tip 4.5: If you build it, they will come Speaking of leaving loved ones behind, here’s the real joy we discovered in our adventure: you’re never that far away. Over the course of our two and a half years in France we’ve had rich opportunities to share our new life with loved ones that we never would have had otherwise. For example, living abroad has brought us long-term roommates in the form of grandfathers and great-grandfathers. It’s allowed us to eat Italian gelato with our siblings and race down countless cobblestone roads with cousins. It has reunited us with old friends and deepened the already well-established friendships. In our isolation, we’re reminded time and time again that it’s the quality of life’s moments shared, not the quantity that truly deepens our relationships in life. Like adding new spices to life, our experience abroad has infused every relationship we treasure with more flavor. All this has happened because we decided one day to invest in the unknown. What we’ve found is that as soon as we started building, the people we care most about came. They came and added to our experience because they love us and they want to taste a piece of what we’re experiencing as a family.

https://medium.com/mindtrip/4-donts-to-get-you-moving-abroad-tomorrow-5b59713199d0

['Dave Smurthwaite']

2020-02-11 10:17:44.562000+00:00

['Travel', 'Expat Life', 'Parenting', 'Life', 'Expat']

Studying The Pandemic With a Single Visualization Using Plotly Dash

Building The Dashboard When creating a Dash app, the first thing you’ll have to worry about is setting up your application’s layout, which is done in HTML. Luckily, Dash provides us with functions that act as HTML tags, allowing us to create Divs, Headers, and other components through the dash_html_components library. You can even use CSS through the style argument of the methods. To use it, you pass it a dictionary with the keys corresponding to the CSS properties in camelCase and the dictionary’s values corresponding to the values you want to give to each property. Aside from the HTML, you can also add graphs and various types of input components from the dash_core_components libraries. The graph components will be our plots. If you don’t plan on making the dashboard interactive, you can simply attribute a plot made in Plotly to them via the figure argument of the methods. But in our case, we’ll instead define their ids so we can use them interactively. Defining The Layout for Our Dashboard With our layout out of the way, we can get down to making the plots and having them receive data from the input components, which are, in this case, a Dropdown and Slider components from the core components library. We associate our graphs to our input components via the callback functions. When using one of these, we list our output and input variables through the Output and Input functions from the dash.dependencies module, which takes in the unique ids we gave them when building the layout, as seen above. The code will then execute the following function using the input variables and link what it returns to the output variable, which is, in this case, our graphs. When defining our function to plot the graphs, we can simply plot them as we would normally but replacing the variables we want to be interactive with the input variables the function takes in. Building Our Interactive Plots Using Callbacks And then, finally, we write the code to run our dashboard and get the final product of all the code we wrote so far.

https://towardsdatascience.com/studying-the-pandemic-with-a-single-visualization-using-plotly-dash-ae2a3431866c

['Thiago Rodrigues']

2020-11-27 22:37:59.920000+00:00

['Covid 19', 'Python', 'Visualization', 'Dash', 'Data Science']

【コンバーターファイターⅡ】MacOSでPotreeConverterの使用はできるのか？

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore

https://medium.com/furuhashilab/%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%90%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E2%85%B1-macos%E3%81%A7potreeconverter%E3%81%AE%E4%BD%BF%E7%94%A8%E3%81%AF%E3%81%A7%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8B%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8B-16e2891a83ed

['Hironori Morita']

2020-12-22 17:36:09.839000+00:00

['Potreeconverter', 'Drone', 'Furuhashilab', 'Potree', 'Point Cloud Data']

Why Mental Health is important to us?

Mental Health refers to how people think, feel and react according to the situations. It affects while handling stress and making decisions and influences the way we look at ourselves and others life. Like physical health, mental health is important in all stages of our life. It helps to lead a happy and balanced life. Children and adolescents with mental health issues need to be cured as soon as possible. Various signs may indicate mental health disorders or emotional disturbances. Some warning signs are, Sad and hopeless attitude for invalid reasons. Feeling guilty often Having unexplained fears Constantly worrying about physical problems Unable to come over the loss of the death of neared ones. Anxiety or worried often. Things you can do to attain strong mental health Treat yourself with respect and kind and also avoid self-criticism. Do physical exercises which help to improve your mental strength. Surround yourself with the good people such as friends, family and relatives. Spend time to help needy people and volunteer yourself with social activities. Learn to deal with stress. Practice or learn good skills, plat with your pet or read self-motivating books for the betterment of your mental health. See the humour in your life and always remember to smile. Smile is the best stress buster according to the research. Keep your mind calm by doing prayers and yoga which can improve your state of mind and outlook of your life. Set some academic or professional goals in your life to enjoy the sense of accomplishment. Plan a road trip and meet the new set of people to rejuvenate your life. Lastly, discover ways to take a healthy approach to your mental illness and make others also happy.

https://medium.com/@muthukrishnanpk84/why-mental-health-is-important-to-us-35e1389c8bfa

[]

2020-12-24 09:26:32.026000+00:00

['Mental Illness', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Mental Health']

The cliched ramblings of a Medium virgin.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash I want to publish my first article. Well, I guess I should start with saying I want to write my first article. I want to write a book, but it’s an overwhelming task when you haven’t even finished a short story or small article. Everything feels overwhelming to me at the moment, but I don’t want to be a slave to my anxiety anymore. I have been saying to people “I think I want to write, but I don’t know what I want to write about” for 5 years now. My long suffering sister (who’ll be proof reading this piece) can attest to that. She’s been riding this anxiety ridden road with me for many more years. Lately I’ve been asking people outside of my family circle and inside my more creative friendship circle. The answers vary. A few along the lines of “You’d be a great writer, you’re so creative”. Another was a simple “Sounds cool, just write about your life”. I needed to dig deeper. When I said I didn’t think I was funny enough to write humor, one friend simply stated that “having a thick skin and going for it” was the only way to test that. I admitted that I feel creativity within me, like a pressure on my chest but I have trouble releasing it into anything usable, either in the written word, through visual art or even when I am cooking… “meditation’s what you need”. And then one, very honest, friend said simply “you’ve been saying you want to write for years, do it or don’t.” Do it or don’t. They’re the two options. If you think you’re a writer, sit down and write. If you don’t sit down and write… you’re not a writer. I’ve been a Medium member for half a year. I’ve read so many articles about writing, that’s all that shows in my suggestion feed. Ok. There’s a few sex articles in there as well. I have analysed and delved and taken notes and opened blank notepads and word documents. I have made notes on my phone, listened to writing podcasts, started some fairly generic character studies and even attempted NaNoWriMo once with zero planning. I lasted three days. Well four but that last day I just typed out my shopping list instead of handwriting it. Fear. It’s that simple. It’s that complicated. I don’t want to write something I think is relevant and others yawn through it. I don’t want to be mocked for my lame mum jokes (like dad jokes but worse, and in my case, usually dirtier). I certainly don’t want people pointing out my obvious lack of research skills. Or my grammar. I already know I use too many of these (…) I know they have a name but my grammar is so bad I don’t know what it is and I am so lazy I won’t google it. Also, I love exclamation marks. I have to physically restrain myself from using excessive exclamation marks… Luckily, I know what they’re called because there is a thumbtack stuck to my number one key. I know I will have to work on these skills, but I don’t want to wait till they are perfect to start. I just want to talk crap in an article and maybe make people chuckle mildly. I want to write about some deep serious stuff that’s happened in my life. I want to just write a list of my life goals and hope a sugar daddy’s reading. I’d like to keep people’s spirits up when they are going through down times. Or, make them feel better about their parenting because my kids are both nicknamed “oi, bitch!” Man, if I could make someone pee their pants a little… that’s the dream. But, fear. It keeps my hands still and my head moving. It drives me to procrastinate with my crochet hook, in the kitchen or on my phone looking at social media or browsing educational Medium articles. Hey. Those sex articles are educational if you implement them. I guess the same could be said for the articles about writing. Perhaps I should switch to implementing some of them for a time. You know the ones I mean. The articles full of lists. “10 things you should do to be a better writer.” “11 things you shouldn’t do if you want to be a better writer.” There’s usually half of each on the other list and so my brain becomes more confused. “The 216 simple things you must do in the morning if you want to have a successful writing career”, these ones are fun because to complete them would require 12.5 hours and leave you completely exhausted. You know what I mean. Don’t think I dislike Medium, or hate the articles I’m reading. It’s my favorite find. I have a lot of those types of articles saved and re-read them occasionally. I’ve found myself cherry picking ideas from them that are helping me develop my own ideas. Indeed, they have helped me want to write this article about wanting to write articles. So here goes. I’ll publish this, somewhat cliched, article and then the first one will be out of the way. Then I can start tackling the list of semi-formed ideas hiding in my journal. I don’t have a theme for my writing. I don’t know if I should have one. A list I remember reading said I should write about what motivates or moves me. My hobbies and passions. Things I care about. Things that excite me. Well that’s just fine but be warned… everything excites me. Though not much motivates me.

https://medium.com/@bartonjo82/the-cliched-ramblings-of-a-medium-virgin-5516525ae532

['Jo Barton']

2019-03-13 13:36:03.675000+00:00

['Anxiety', 'Writing', 'First Post']

Tezosで窯焼き ~XTZ Baking Guide~

Tezosノードの設定 公式のハウツーに従って設定していきます。[9] まずノードがネットワークに参加するために使用するIDを作成します。 level をgenerateキーワードの後に続けて指定することもできますが、ここではデフォルトの26がそのまま適用されています。このIDはピアノード間でデータを暗号化するための鍵ペアです。 $ ./tezos-node identity generate Generating a new identity... (level: 26.00) |.ooo.| Stored the new identity (idxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) into '/home/.tezos-node/identity.json' ノードの設定ファイルを作ります。クライアントから通信するためのRPCポートとピアノードとやり取りするP2Pのポートを設定しました（RPCのポートはセキュリティの理由から閉じても構いません）。 $ ./tezos-node config init $ ./tezos-node config update --rpc-addr=127.0.0.1:8732 $ ./tezos-node config update --p2p-addr=127.0.0.1:9732 $ more ~/.tezos-node/config.json { "rpc": { "listen-addr": "127.0.0.1:8732" }, "p2p": { "listen-addr": "127.0.0.1:9732" } } ノードを走らせます。『The Tezos node is now running!』が出力されてブロックの取り込みが始まります。 $ ./tezos-node run Jun 23 23:22:54 - node.main: Starting the Tezos node... Jun 23 23:22:54 - node.main: No local peer discovery. Jun 23 23:22:54 - node.main: Peer's global id: idqkAUDV4LrkPgYsT6QptDvUFW8UaQ Jun 23 23:22:54 - main: shell-node initialization: bootstrapping Jun 23 23:22:54 - main: shell-node initialization: p2p_maintain_started Jun 23 23:22:54 - validator.block: Worker started Jun 23 23:22:54 - validation_process.sequential: Initialized Jun 23 23:22:54 - node.validator: activate chain NetXdQprcVkpaWU Jun 23 23:22:54 - validator.chain_1: Worker started for NetXdQprcVkpa Jun 23 23:22:54 - p2p.maintenance: Too few connections (0) Jun 23 23:22:54 - node.chain_validator: no prevalidator filter found for protocol 'Ps9mPmXaRzmz' Jun 23 23:22:54 - prevalidator.NetXdQprcVkpa.Ps9mPmXaRzmz_1: Worker started for NetXdQprcVkpa.Ps9mPmXaRzmz Jun 23 23:22:54 - node.main: Starting a RPC server listening on ::ffff:127.0.0.1:8732. Jun 23 23:22:54 - node.main: The Tezos node is now running! Jun 23 23:22:54 - validator.peer_1: Worker started for NetXdQprcVkpa:idrjpL4nWD1A Jun 23 23:22:54 - validator.peer_2: Worker started for NetXdQprcVkpa:idree9CRVRat Jun 23 23:22:54 - validator.peer_3: Worker started for NetXdQprcVkpa:idqrppXmQDDF Jun 23 23:22:54 - validator.peer_4: Worker started for NetXdQprcVkpa:idrXdFBVqgd9 Jun 23 23:22:54 - validator.peer_5: Worker started for NetXdQprcVkpa:ids9w5SdjEmp tezos-client bootstrapped コマンドでシンク済みのブロックヘッダを確認できます。

https://medium.com/@yuyasugano/tezos%E3%81%A7%E7%AA%AF%E7%84%BC%E3%81%8D-xtz-baking-guide-7da5c30411ff

['Yuya Sugano']

2019-09-08 02:41:09.167000+00:00

['Tezos Baking', 'Tezos', 'Decentralization', 'Staking', 'Blockchain']

Before the Final Analysis: Marxist Materialism vs. Bakuninist Idealism

Spending enough time in enough multi-tendency left-wing spaces, one is almost guaranteed to hear the phrase, “In the final analysis, we are all anarchists.” While this slogan can be useful for promoting unity, it ignores the massive practical and philosophical disagreements between anarchists and Marxists that make the road to the “final analysis” a long and bumpy one. These essential disagreements are well represented in the combative dialogue between early Anarchist theorist Mikhail Bakunin, and the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The disagreements between these theorists ranged from the causes of social revolution, the revolutionary subject of the social revolution, to the role of the state or lack thereof. On the causes of social revolution, Bakunin argues staunchly from the position of idealism. Not being a Hegelian, he does not argue that a “world spirit” gives energy to respective ideas, rather that the beginning of social revolution occurs when people are able to think abstractly about their rights. He writes, “They do not revolt because they have no adequate perception of their rights nor any confidence in their own powers…the first condition i.e., the ability to think abstractly has not yet been attained by the masses”(Bakunin “The Franco Prussian War and the Paris Commune” page 209) positing that the masses of people must be made aware of their rights in order to create the atmosphere for revolution. According to Bakunin, the material conditions of poverty alone are not enough to produce social revolution, and “poverty and desperation are still not sufficient to generate social revolution…It is necessary that the populace have a general idea of their rights and a deep, passionate, quasi-religious belief in the validity of these rights.”(Bakunin “Final Years” page 335) For Bakunin, social revolution relies first on the people’s knowledge of their rights, and second on their absolute faith in these rights. This focus on ideas and belief would lead Marx and Engels, both materialists, to refer to Bakunin jokingly as a “Pope” or “Jesuit”. In contrast, Marx and Engels offer the materialist view. Marx says, “A radical social revolution depends on the particular historical conditions of economic development; they are its prerequisites. Thus a revolution is possible only where, together with capitalist production, the industrial proletariat occupies at least an important place within the population.”(Marx “ From the Conspectus of Bakunin’s book State and Anarchy” page 149) That revolution does not just emerge as a historic phenomenon from a Hegelian geist, the right people receiving the right ideas or “will” (Marx “From the Conspectus of Bakunin’s book State and Anarchy” page 150) but that people are forced into revolution under capitalism as the bourgeoisie proletarianize and further impoverish the population. Marx in broad terms describes the beginning of the next social revolution thusly, “[the proletarian] becomes a pauper and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society.”(Marx and Engels “Manifesto of the Communist Party” page 483) For Marx and Engels the people can only gain consciousness and desire for social revolution when they are put into material conditions, specifically, those of industrial capitalism, that allow for this consciousness to develop and make them poor enough that this consciousness develops into a working-class movement to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Bakunin argues that there was no single revolutionary class and also didn’t conceive of class in the scientific terms that Marx did. He thought that generally the non-capitalist classes would come together to overthrow the capitalist class, saying that revolutionary subjects will be, “The people, the poor class, which without doubt constitutes the greatest part of humanity.”(Bakunin on Anarchism page 57) That all the “people” who suffer under the yolk of the state and capitalism, once properly educated with their rights, will at one point spontaneously rise up in social revolution. Bakunin argued that the Marxist program was too dogmatic and was therefore not pragmatic. Bakunin attacked Marx, saying, “If the proletariat is to be the ruling class it may be asked then whom will it rule?…It might be the peasant rabble for example, which, as we know does not enjoy the favor of the Marxists.”(Bakunin “Statism and Anarchy” page 177) He worried that what he saw as Marx’s dogmatic love for the proletariat and hatred of the peasantry would, in the event of a successful proletarian revolution subject the rural peasants to exploitation, thereby making the system just as despotic as before, simply with a change of leadership. Bakunin argued that the peasantry should, for all their shortcomings be key in any revolution because they possess great revolutionary potential, saying, “It is true that the peasants, being petty landlords are to a considerable extent egoistic and reactionary, but this has not affected their instinctive hatred of the “fine gentleman” and they hate the bourgeois landlords, who enjoy the bounty of the earth without cultivating it with their own hands.” (Bakunin The Franco Prussian War and the Paris Commune page 189) For Bakunin the anti-intellectual and anti-cosmopolitan attributes of the peasantry allowed them to become a great revolutionary force that would work with the proletariat and other oppressed classes, and because of this revolutionary potential, they should not be ignored. Bakunin thought that instead of falling into what he saw as Marx’s anti-rural and anti-peasant attitudes and thinking about how to best malign, manipulate or control the peasantry for the sake of proletarian revolution, “It is a question of establishing a program of action which will overcome the individualism and conservatism of the peasants and not only prevent their individualism from propelling them into the camp of reaction but enable that individualism to serve and ensure the triumph of the revolution.”(Bakunin The Franco Prussian War and the Paris Commune page 197) It is imperative for Bakunin that social revolution that its program include the peasants both because they are oppressed workers and because failure to do so would mean their fall into reaction, possibly dooming the social revolution. Marx and Engels would disagree with Bakunin’s characterization of their position towards the peasantry and say rather than their position being dogmatic, it is simply rooted in scientific analysis. While Marx clearly states, “Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.”(Marx and Engels “Manifesto of the Communist Party” page 481–482) Making it clear that Marx sees the proletariat as the most revolutionary class, however, contrasting Bakunin’s characterization this doesn’t mean the complete maligning of the peasants. Marx says in response to Bakunin, “to have any chance of success [in the proletarian social revolution][the proletariat] must mutatis mutandis be able immediately to do at least as much for the peasants as the French bourgeoisie during its revolution did for the French peasants of the time. A fine idea to assume that the rule of the workers stands for the subjugation of agricultural workers.”(Marx “ From the Conspectus of Bakunin’s book State and Anarchy” page 149) Marx agrees with Bakunin that the peasantry are necessary for a successful revolution, and thus suggests that the proletariat must placate and win over the peasantry, just as the French bourgeoisie did during their revolution. However, for Marx, the peasants cannot play the same role as the proletariat, as the peasants exist in completely different economic conditions from the industrial proletariat, but they still have a role to play in social revolution, albeit more auxiliary than Bakunin would like. With the roots of social revolution and the revolutionary subjects established, now comes a question of the goal of social revolution. Bakunin says the goal of social revolution is to “Abolish all states, destroy bourgeois civilization, organize freely from below upward, by means of free associations- organize the unshackled laboring hordes, the whole of liberated humanity, create a new world for all mankind.”(Bakunin Statism and Anarchy 197) For Bakunin, a successful social revolution means the complete and immediate liquidation of the state and freedom for all people. This is in stark opposition to the Marxist goal of, “formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.”(Marx and Engels “Manifesto of the Communist Party” page 484) Bakunin would say that this conquest of political power by the proletariat would not in fact liberate the people but in fact, “constitute their fourth governing class.”(Bakunin The Franco Prussian War and the Paris Commune page 294) That a conquest of state power by the proletariat would simply continue the oppressive state structure and not liberate anyone, because the existence of a state requires a ruling class separate from the people. This is because for Bakunin the sole objective of the modern state, regardless of the ruling class, “is to organize the most intensive exploitation of the people’s labor for the benefit of capital concentrated in a very small number of hands.”(Bakunin Statism and Anarchy pg 12) Therefore, the state is simply a mechanism of exploitation of the masses that rewards those select few at the top while continually punishing everyone else. Furthermore, Bakunin says no level of representation in a state can adequately manage or emancipate people. Bakunin writes, “This [ruling] minority even if it were a thousand times elected by universal suffrage and controlled in its acts by popular institutions, unless it were endowed with omniscience, omnipresence and the omnipotence which the theologians attribute to God, could not possibly know and foresee the needs of its people, or satisfy with an even justice those interests which are most legitimate and pressing. There will always be discontented people because there will always be some who are sacrificed.”(Bakunin The Franco Prussian War and the Paris Commune page 318) For Bakunin no ruling class, feudal, bourgeois, or proletarian will be able to adequately represent the people as they will be managing them as a class above. However, Marx and Engels would agree that the abolition of the state is necessary, saying that, “All Socialists are agreed that the political state, and with it political authority, will disappear as a result of the coming social revolution, that is, that public functions will lose their political character and be transformed into the simple administrative functions of watching over the true interests of society.”(Engels “On Authority” page 105) They however see the destruction of the state and class society not as an immediate action, but as a process carried out through the political domination of the proletariat.(On the Political Action of the Working Class page 53) Marx says of the necessity of the state, “[A]s other classes, and the capitalist class in particular, still exist, and as long as the proletariat fights against them (for its enemies and the old organization of society do not vanish as a result of its coming to power) it must employ coercive measures, that is, government measures; so long it is still a class itself, and the economic conditions which give rise to class struggle and the existence of classes have not yet disappeared and must be forcibly removed or transformed, and the process of their transformation accelerated by the use of force.”(Marx “From The Conspectus of Bakunin’s Book State and Anarchy” page 148) For Marx, the state is a necessary tool of the working class to meet bourgeois force with force and to transform the material and social basis of society into one devoid of class, and therefore, devoid of the need for a political state apparatus. On the question of democracy in the proletarian state Marx clearly rebuffs Bakunin’s dismissal of it with, “This democratic drivel, political claptrap is asinine. Elections are a political form which exists in the smallest Russian commune and artel. The nature of the elections is determined not by name, but by the economic basis, the economic interrelation of the voters, and from the moment when the functions have ceased to be political ones (1) government functions no longer exist; (2) the distribution of general functions becomes a routine matter and does not entail any domination; (3) elections completely lose their present political character.”(Marx “From The Conspectus of Bakunin’s Book State and Anarchy” page 151) Marx deflects Bakunin’s dismissal of proletarian state democracy with democracy’s organic and historical roots and practice in peasant society, showing that elections are a manifestation of class power, through economic interrelation, and collective class management of the tasks of daily life. Going further on his refutation of Bakunin, Marx asserts that since elections are basically the political mechanism of management, that in a society that has advanced past class society, and thus past the need for politics, these elected positions will become purely managerial, and thus the state will wither away. Bakunin argues against Marx and Engels from a position totally lacking in scientific analysis and deeply rooted in idealism. At every turn he advocates “will”, “morality” and “absolute freedom”, but only as political platitudes, totally devoid of any material basis. Bakunin is rebuffed at every turn by Marx’s and Engels’ scientific and materialist analysis. Where Bakunin advocates for will and knowledge as the foundation of social revolution, Marx and Engels prove its roots in material conditions. Where Bakunin says the “working class” generally will rise up due to knowledge of and demand for their rights, Marx and Engels scientifically examine the conditions of each class and conclude that the proletariat, due to its concentration in industrial cities and increasing poverty is most likely to initiate and lead social revolution. Where Bakunin demands an end to the state and state democracy as oppressive institutions, Marx and Engels show the necessity and historical roots of proletarian democracy and state control and its necessity in the quest for a stateless society. Though in the final analysis Bakunin, Marx and Engels all strive for a stateless society, either anarchy or communism, at every turn Marx and Engels, due to their scientific and materialist analysis, are able to counter the idealist positions of Bakunin and provide a coherent political program and a pathway towards human liberation and an end to class society where Bakunin can only provide moralistic sloganeering.

https://medium.com/@levorenberg/before-the-final-analysis-marxist-materialism-vs-bakuninist-idealism-d8f96ca46e84

['Lev Orenberg']

2020-12-27 20:22:32.501000+00:00

['Anarchism', 'Socialism', 'Materialism', 'Karl Marx', 'Communism']

Deploy .NET 5 application on App Service

Introduction Last year, in Build 2019, Microsoft announced .NET 5, the next release in the .NET family, and it is released today and it can be used in a stable version. .NET 5 includes C# 9 and F# 5 with a set set of new features and improvements. App Service now supports .NET 5 applications across all public regions and scenarios on both Windows and Linux App Service plans. Schedule Prerequisites You can download .NET 5.0, for Windows, macOS, and Linux, for x86, x64, Arm32, Arm64. If you want to use Visual Studio 2019, you need to update the version to 16.8 or later to use .NET 5.0 on Windows and the latest version of Visual Studio for Mac) on macOS and you don’t need to install it from previous link, it will be included by default in .NET project templates. Create .NET 5 Application in Visual Studio 2019 We need to open Visual Studio 2019: .NET 5 on App Service You need a have an account in Azure to deploy any application in Azure: While they are starting with .NET 5 early access they plan to use the Early Access mechanism to deliver faster and more frequent updates for all the App Service supported languages including Node and Python and others. This is the video: Deploy .NET 5 Application to Azure App Service using Visual Studio 2019 You can see more details in .NET Conf: https://www.dotnetconf.net/agenda

https://medium.com/@didourebai/deploy-net-5-application-on-app-service-54756e1dbec4

['Rebai Hamida']

2020-11-10 22:17:47.759000+00:00

['App Service', 'Microsoft', 'Dotnet 5', 'Microsoft Azure', 'Dotnet Core']

Investment thesis for Mind Medicine -Psychedelic inspired medicines

Summary MindMed a neuro-pharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and deploys psychedelic inspired medicines to improve health, promote wellness, and alleviate suffering. The company is primarily focusing on developing a non-hallucinogenic version of the psychedelic ibogaine to address the opioid crisis. MindMed has initiated or is initiating studies to evaluate potential treatments to help patients with adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, cluster headaches, and substance abuse. There are 5 tailwinds that I believe will cause mindmed to be the Category leader As COVID-19 continues to compound society’s prevalence of anxiety disorders globally, MindMed is pushing ahead with full vigor on the planning and design of Project Lucy.” A Blue Cross Blue Shield report from 2019 found that millennials are seeing their physical and mental health decline at a faster rate than Gen X as they age. Without proper management or treatment, millennials could see a 40% uptick in mortality compared with Gen Xers of the same age, the report found. The stigma for mental health and wellness. is no longer a barrier as millennials embrace mindfulness. and are open to experimentation with Psychedelics and other Nutraceuticals. The movement to decriminalize psilocybin in the United States will open the door for safety and efficacy data coupled with legal reforms generating broader interest in the medical and therapeutic promise of psychedelics, with a growing crop of mainstream media outlets now covering developments. A successful. acceptance of the NASDAQ up-listing could serve as another major catalyst for institutional investor and analyst coverage. Qualitative MindMed will become the category leader in psychedelic inspired medicines. in collaboration with University Hospital Basel’s Liechti Laboratory, has discovered and filed a patent application in the United States (preserving all worldwide rights) for a neutralizer technology intended to shorten and stop the effects of an LSD trip during a therapy session. This discovery, when further developed, may act as the ‘off-switch’ to an LSD trip. One of the many fears and stigmas associated with psychedelics are rare occurrences of ‘bad trips’. MindMed is equipping therapists and other medical professionals with the resources and technology to better control the effects of dosing LSD in a clinical setting to improve the patient experience and patient outcomes. This advancement paves the way for greater therapeutic applications of LSD and shorter-acting psychedelic therapy treatments. MindMed believes this technology, when further developed, may one day be marketed as an added feature to shorten a therapy session and stop a session if the patient is not comfortable. The next decade will lead to further breakthroughs and innovation in personalized medicine MindMed, working with the Liechti Laboratory, will continue to research and build a patent portfolio around psychedelic compounds that create novel approaches to medicine. MindMed will initially focus on the opioid crisis: in the USA, it is estimated that there are at least 11 million people misusing opioids, with an annual cost to the US economy of an estimated $500 billion. Existing addiction treatments have been inadequate, and the FDA has provided incentives for effective opioid treatments, including accelerated approval and “breakthrough” designation for the development of treatments for opioid use disorders, and a lowered threshold for approval — accepting a standard of fewer occasions per day. MindMed intends to leverage and develop its existing intellectual property in treating opioid use disorder, in particular its 18-MC molecule, which is a synthetic congener of the ibogaine plant, and which has been proven effective in the past for treating addictions. In early tests, 18-MC appears to have retained these anti- addictive properties while eliminating the downsides of ibogaine use, including a risk of cardiac toxicity, a lengthy hallucinogenic experience, and being a banned substance. Quantitive On July 28, 2020, MindMed concluded dosing in a Phase 1 Single Ascending Dose (SAD) study of 18-MC. The dosing of 18-MC was well tolerated in humans and will help advance planning for a Phase 2a clinical trial in opioid addiction. Further, the study has not incurred any delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Multiple Ascending Dose (MAD) study is on track according to the original development timeline. MindMed plans to begin the Phase 2a study of 18-MC in opioid addiction by the end of this year. MindMed will pursue N-N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the principally active ingredient in Ayahuasca. MindMed is providing startup funding for a Phase 1 clinical trial testing various intravenous dosing regimens of DMT, expected to begin in Q4 of 2020. Disclosure long mindmed . Disclaimer this is not investment advice and is for research purposes only . Consult a registered investment advisor before making any investment.

https://medium.com/@jamessowers/investment-thesis-for-mind-medicine-psychedelic-inspired-medicines-401cc36031e

['Asian Cowboy']

2020-11-23 18:40:57.519000+00:00

['Psychedelics']

BIOMILQ’s Values Embody the Qualities of Strong Women

By Michelle Egger When I first was introduced to Leila, she was described to me as ‘a crazy lady’. But, after learning about how Leila was making milk outside the body here in Durham, NC, I only saw her as ‘visionary,’ not crazy. As a sucker for all things exciting, I could not wait to learn more about her work and see if maybe there was a place for me to get involved. Spoiler alert: there was plenty. When I met Leila, she was bravely pushing through the chaos that came with trying to make her dream of nurturing milk-producing cells beyond the breast a reality. She was balancing a scientific communications career, young family, and small farm, while pursuing a dream that could not be accomplished alone. It was then, another one of my personal drivers kicked in: being conscientious of what others need and wanting to find a way to help someone, however I can. I didn’t know what supporting Leila meant exactly, but I knew that I wanted to help another driven woman bring life-changing technology to the world and we could figure out the rest. So, to the confusion of family and friends, I jumped in with both feet, while maintaining my status as a full-time grad student. Michelle and Leila, nearly a year after opening BIOMILQ’s doors We met in coffee shops, coffee for her and tea for me, and co-working spaces for months — basically anywhere that was of little to no cost. We discussed our ‘whys’ and frequently would end up in tears — moved by the potential of what we were striving towards. We finished last minute pitch decks and applications with fervor, unsure of the outcomes, but always ready to resiliently bounce back and learn in public along the way. And above all, we dreamt of a world where women didn’t have to sacrifice so much of themselves for their children. In these early meetings, it quickly became clear that we were a match made in heaven, and we were determined to make our world a reality. Michelle and Leila on a beach near San Francisco We took a hairbrained trip to San Francisco, which happened to overlap with the JPM Healthcare conference (which, for the record, I’m 90% positive is an opportunity for pharma dudes to boost each other’s egos). It was here that our partnership really bloomed. We snuck into networking events to eat fancy cheese (of which we both adore), we adventured like tourists, and slowly began learning one another’s quirks. Finding a co-founder is not too dissimilar from dating. First, you begin to love things about the other person. Then, you find things that bug you about this monster you have decided to commit your working life to. And finally, when it works, you build a relationship on a foundation of mutual respect and authenticity, that underpins the good and the bad days — of which we both have had many in the last year. By helping Leila, an overwhelmed mom trying to navigate a new world of starting a company, we established a precedent for how we wanted BIOMILQ to exist. Yes, we’re pioneering next-generation lactation science. But, more than that, we’re offering support for new parents by empowering them with greater choice when it comes to infant feeding and therefore parenting. We are not a ‘big infant formula’ company looking to pillage and plunder in marketplaces to become the only option parents can turn to — we want to be there for parents whether they select our products or not. There is no way to overstate how mission-driven we are, as individuals, as a team, and as a company without sounding cheesy. Our mission and values drive every decision we make; sometimes to a fault. Our view of the future has remained unwavering from the first day we met — to ethically and sustainably bring human milk to parents who deserve better options to feed their children. To advance lactation science and begin to unwind the effects of animal agriculture on our world. To fundamentally shift the ways we unlock human potential through nutrition. left to right: Alex, Leila, Michelle, Holland, Victoria; not pictured: Charlotte, Michael, Malika, Claire, Ishi And so, putting our values to paper was, well, easier than almost anything else we did! And once we had our values down, we built an enviable team here in North Carolina, where just 1 short year later each person embodies our values in everything they do. Whether they’re studying cells, reading for our team book club, or learning from moms (virtually, of course), I am honored to serve every day as CEO of BIOMILQ. I love to be able to not only talk the talk, but walk our walk, as a team. I hope by sharing our values, and my thoughts on how we came to show up each and every day as BIOMILQ , you can feel our intentions and care for the world. This work is all consuming, exhausting, exhilarating, and empowering. We hope you’ll support us on this journey and jump in with both feet too.

https://medium.com/@biomilq/biomilqs-values-embody-the-qualities-of-strong-women-2d3980157c9f

[]

2021-01-27 19:54:22.187000+00:00

['Breastfeeding', 'Women In Business', 'Women in STEM', 'Motherhood']

How Can $20 Change a Life?

Ted Horn was the owner of the Dixie Diner in Houston Mississippi. He noticed the hopelessness in a man, apparently homeless, cold, and hungry. The desperation in the man’s eyes led him to believe that he had no intention of paying for his lunch. Ted walked behind Larry’s stool at the counter and dropped a $20 bill. “Son, you must have dropped this,” as he handed Larry the money. Larry Stewart went on to make millions from a cable company and settled in Kansas City Missouri. You may have heard about the Secret Santa of Kansas City? It all started with a simple act of kindness and compassion. How can you be a Secret Santa? Pay for the car behind you in the drive-through, tip carry out or serving staff extra, and don’t pass the bell ringers without dropping in some change.

https://medium.com/@patricialrosatr/how-can-20-change-a-life-13b907346a20

['Patricia Rosa']

2020-12-21 12:32:17.306000+00:00

['Compassion', 'Hope', 'Giving Back', 'Charity', 'Secret Sa']

Hive data organization — Partitioning & Clustering

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash Data organization impacts the query performance of any data warehouse system. Hive is no exception to that. This blog aims at discussing Partitioning, Clustering(bucketing) and consideration around them. The above diagram depicts the hierarchy of the files handled by Hive for a table which is partitioned and bucketed. Tables and partitions are directory or sub-directory, while buckets are actual files. In case we do not apply those we will have single file under Employee directory. If we apply bucketing and no partitioning then we will have N number of files named as 000000_1 …… 00000_N. In case of partitioning we will have directories equal to the cardinality of the column on which we partition the data. If we partition on multiple column then the number of subdirectories become cardinality of column 1 * cardinality of column 2. If we apply both partitioning and bucketing then we will end up with N(number of buckets) files under the partition sub directory. I mentioned these things as these help in deciding on how to efficiently use these concepts to optimize query execution times. Partitioning PARTITIONED BY (Dept_id INT) Partitioning is a way of distributing the data load horizontally into more manageable chunks/directories and sub-directories. This allows us to organize data in more logical function. In the above diagram we created partitions on Dept_id. Lets say we have 3 departments with even distribution of employees. In that case we will end up with three sub-directories. That will be based on the Dept_id. This will help us on skipping the data from departments we are not interacting with in the query. This helps in improving query performance if we are dealing with lot of queries having Dept_id in the predicate (WHERE clause). The data of the partition column(s) are not stored in the files. It’s intuitive as well since we don’t add the column, on which we do partition, in the create table expression. Dynamic and Static Partitioning Partition management in Hive can be done in two ways. Static (user manager) or Dynamic (managed by hive). In Static Partitioning we need to specify the partition in which we want to load the data. Also partition can be added using ADD PARTITION operation. In Dynamic Partitioning partitions get created automatically while data load operation happens based on the value of the column on which the partition is defined. To enable dynamic partitioning we need to use set below hive configuration SET hive.exec.dynamic.partition=true SET hive.exec.dynamic.partition.mode=nonstrict If we don’t set the second option then we cant create dynamic partition unless we have at least one static partition. Clustering CLUSTERED BY (Emp_id) INTO 3 Bucketing or clustering is a way of distributing the data load into a user supplied set of buckets by calculating the hash of the key and taking modulo with the number of buckets/clusters. In case we have clustered the table based on employee id. Emp_id which gives the same value after hash and modulo will go in the same file. SET hive.enforce.bucketing=true Let say we have 9 GB of employee data and each department has 3Gb worth of data (assuming even distribution of employee across departments). In that case we will have roughly 9 files with (9Gb)/(no of department(3) * no of clusters(3)) = 1Gb/file storing employee data. Bucketing is suitable technique for sampling and join optimization. In star schema facts table bucketing is good place to start with. Bucketing can be done independent of partitioning. In that case files will be under table’s directory. Considerations Partitioning scheme, in use, should reflect common filtering. 2. Partitioning column should have very low cardinality. Higher cardinality will create too many partitions. Which will create large number of files and directories. This will add overhead on hive metastore as it needs to keep metadata of partition. SET hive.partition.pruning=strict 3. This ensures that if someone issues query against a partitioned table without predicate it will throw compilation error. 4. Handle Dynamic partitioning with care as it can lead to a high number of partitions. 5. Ensure to create buckets in such a way that each file is not too small(less than HDFS block size). Good threshold should be around 1GB. 6. Although we can do clustering based on multiple columns, it should be used with due diligence. 7. Bucketing is suitable for attribute with high cardinality. Generally choose attributes which are frequently used in Group By or Order by clause 8. No of buckets can’t be changed after table creation. 9. (file size / number of buckets) > HDFS block size. Hope it was useful. References: https://journalofbigdata.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40537-019-0196-1

https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/hive-data-organization-partitioning-clustering-3e14ef6ab121

['Amit Singh Rathore']

2021-02-17 13:33:30.983000+00:00

['Clustering', 'Hive', 'Big Data', 'Partitioning']

How A Unicorn Became A Mom

How A Unicorn Became A Mom Generation Women at Caveat. Photo Credit: Tamara Smith @taqueth This is a story about the female body and the magic it can do. And the most magical part of this story is that I’m…a unicorn. I may not look like a unicorn on the outside. No horn, no hooves. But on the inside — literally, on the inside, my reproductive organs are 100% My Little Pony. I have a rare genetic condition called unicornuate uterus, which is when only one side of the female anatomy is fully formed. I essentially have a partial uterus about half the size and shape of a normal one, with one functioning Fallopian tube attached, which is “the horn”. Unicornuate uterus is so rare that it’s estimated to occur in only about 1 in 4000 (0.025%) of people born with female anatomy. So, appropriately enough, there aren’t a lot of us unicorns around. I found out about my unicornuate uterus when my husband and I started trying to have kids. As you approach your mid-30s, you reach what doctors call “geriatric maternal age”. And when you’re “geriatric maternal age”, they suggest that you try conceiving for about six months on your own before getting tested for various things. I took one of those tests and the doctor calls to tell me she wants to give me the results in person. Not good. My doctor is like the Russian version of Samantha from Sex in the City. She does all the normal stuff like shove a speculum in you, and scrape and swab you. But she does it with a no-nonsense sassy attitude and gold strappy heels. And she’s wearing the cutest leather jacket I’ve ever seen in my life when she tells me the news: I have a unicornuate uterus. It’s rare. Not a lot is known about it. But what they do know sucks. Unicornuate uterus can make it harder to conceive, if at all. And it takes basically any risk of a normal pregnancy and doubles it. Chances of a miscarriage. Double. Chances of needing a c-section. Double. Chances of a breech baby. Double. But she is hopeful. She tells me about another patient with a unicornuate uterus who delivered three babies. She tells me that IUI and IVF are great options and also a funny phenomenon where people who’ve decided to start fertility treatments suddenly — and magically — get pregnant all on their own. But I’m not really hearing any of this because I’m still stuck on the fact that my uterus is not the gorgeous “V is for Victory” shape that everyone else has, with the two little jazz hands coming out like this [jazz hands]. I, instead, have a tiny, misshapen, asymmetrical, elliptical blob with one horn sticking out the side. And it hits me that I’d lived my whole 34 years of life with this body without really knowing this body. What I have inside me is not what they showed us in high school biology class on the headless torso lady. And the genetic card I was dealt in my mother’s womb is now going to dictate everything that’s going to happen with my womb. It’s a lot to take in and I start getting a little teary eyed. And my doctor’s just like “N-n-no”. She’s very nice but I could tell she was like “Ooh…I don’t do tears.” So I thank her and I leave. And I walk down Fifth Avenue on a beautiful spring day, sobbing in broad daylight. Because I’m not a Samantha. I’m a Charlotte. I was sad. I was depressed. And my husband and I decide to take a couple months off trying to have a baby because we were scared of the risks. We do our research and discuss our options. We decide to go forward with the most low key fertility treatment, IUI. That’s where they figure out when you’re ovulating and shoot the sperm to the exact right place at the exact right time. It’s like an express bus for sperm. The IUI process begins with some tests on the first day of your cycle. But I hadn’t gotten my period the morning I was scheduled to go in, and was leaving for an artist retreat in Pennsylvania that afternoon. So I thought, “OK, I guess we’ll start next month”. At the artist retreat I’m sleeping in a horse barn, chopping wood and writing songs in the middle of a field. The only thing I’m not doing is getting my period. The moment I get back to Port Authority I buy a pregnancy test at the Duane Reade, and when I get home I see the two pink lines I’d been waiting to see for almost a year. Magic. I’m pregnant for eight weeks and on Labor Day we go in for our first scan and there is no baby there. The doctor tells me I’m miscarrying — and that although it looks like a normal miscarriage, there was also the remote possibility that I could have an ectopic pregnancy — a pregnancy outside of the uterus that’s too small to detect. We go home and things are normal until they’re not. I’m getting ready to go to work one morning and end up on the floor in the greatest pain of my life, dry heaving and feeling like I’m going to pass out — a pain that people have described as actually worse than giving birth. I call 911 and the ambulance takes me to the ER. It turns out I did have an ectopic pregnancy. The embryo had implanted in a Fallopian tube, which had now burst. I had massive internal bleeding and lost about a liter of blood. And the thing about ectopic pregnancies is that babies never survive them and mothers only sometimes do. I’ll probably never know how close I was to death, but the situation was bad enough that they weren’t willing to risk transporting me to Manhattan or waiting for my doctor to come Queens. And any good real estate agent will tell you how close Queens is to Manhattan, but when it’s rush hour and you’re bleeding to death, it turns out they are really not close at all. They did an emergency surgery right then and there. And I went into that surgery making peace with the fact that I was going to lose my one good horn and only way of conceiving naturally. But instead, by some other magic, the baby had actually implanted in a fragment of an non-communicating horn that was previously undetected. The chances of that happening are about 1 in 76,000 to 1 in 140,000 —about 0.0007%. Last spring I conceived a second time and miscarried at five weeks. I was in the recording studio working on my album — which I started because when you almost die, it makes you get off your bullshit and realize you really only have so much time to live and make the art you want to make. And as I started bleeding I took the 7 train home thinking that no one around me knows what’s going on right now. And I wondered — I still wonder — how many women have stood on the train, silently, casually losing their babies while holding onto a subway pole? Last fall I conceived again. I was pregnant long enough to experience the magic of morning sickness. I was pregnant enough to audition for a TV role as a pregnant lady. I got so pregnant that people asked me if I was having twins — I wasn’t. It was a high risk pregnancy with every risk doubled, but I got so pregnant I made it to 39 weeks and two days, went into labor for 12 hours, pushed for two and a half hours and now this is my son Wolfgang [cue picture of Wolfgang], who was born nine weeks ago. My unicorn horn worked three times. And my tiny elliptical-shaped uterus held one baby. My body did some kind of magic I’ll probably never understand. And that is the story of how a unicorn gave birth to a Wolf.

https://medium.com/@jenkwok/how-a-unicorn-became-a-mom-8d55c5385613

['Jen Kwok']

2019-10-16 00:08:50.547000+00:00

['Ectopic Pregnancy', 'Miscarriage', 'Baby', 'Pregnancy Loss', 'Pregnancy']

Why Taoism’s Best Idea & Our Most Radical Environmental Restoration Plans Are Made For Each Other

Photo by Owain McGuire on Unsplash. Lion Sands Game Reserve, Sabi Sands, South Africa The gentlest thing in the world overcomes the hardest thing in the world. That which has no substance enters where there is no space. This shows the value of non-action. Teaching without words, performing without actions: that is the Master’s way. ~Tao Te Ching, chapter 43 We tend to think of environmental restoration as hard work: picks and shovels, ripping invasive plants out of the ground, conducting controlled burns. This is the well meaning side of our fondness for thinking of ourselves as nature’s masters. It was our intervention that screwed it up, so it must be our reintervention that restores it. Often, however, restoration may involve little more than pulling the plug on a foolish dam, watching the waters recede and letting an area recover on its own. Will the place ever be the same? No. But then it was never going to be the same anyway. Nature is just another word for change. In the Taoist tradition the concept of wu-wei (often translated as effortless/actionless action) lies at the core of the philosophy. It is closely associated with water, which though soft eventually cracks and erodes even the hardest of objects. Rewilding likewise calls for respecting the soft power of natural processes and their capacity to eventually return even the most damaged environment back to health. Neither wu-wei nor rewilding call upon us to be utterly passive, but they do challenge us to incorporate careful observation, humility, and patience into everything we do. These have too often been missing from both our efforts to dominate nature and to preserve it. Even when we have the best of intentions, we often act rashly hoping to quickly fix what we have broken. What rewilding isn’t . . . and is Words like rewilding are vulnerable to misunderstanding, to say nothing of intentional misrepresentation by those who oppose it. So before getting to what rewilding is or can be, it’s necessary to say briefly what it isn’t. Rewilding is not a Luddite movement attempting to return us to living in caves without even so much as a plastic toothbrush to our name. Indoor plumbing, electricity, and even Facebook (assuming you haven’t already deleted your account) are all comforts we would still be able to enjoy in a more rewilded world. This isn’t to say incorporating the concept into our conservation and sustainability efforts to a much greater extent wouldn’t impact how we relate with technology. However, I’m convinced these changes would enhance human well-being and happiness rather than subtract from it. Indeed, there’s even evidence humanity could experience greater abundance than it does now if rewilding became a central value of our culture. Rewilding remains strongly linked to the reintroduction of apex predators to ecosystems that haven’t seen them in a while. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone is probably the best known example of this kind of rewilding effort. Because these animals stand at the top of the food chain they need larger areas to thrive. Therefore, their reintroduction also requires large tracts of sufficiently healthy habitat with adequate prey populations. That said, the concept has broadened since the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction. The rewilding of a landscape need not include any reintroduction at all. For example, one can imagine the site of an ill-conceived reservoir being rewilded simply by draining the artificial lake and allowing nature to take its course as the formerly flooded canyon or valley slowly flushes itself of the accumulated silt and revegetates. Some have expanded the concept even further to include areas as small as our backyard or urban rooftops. These tiny patches will obviously never be inviting habitats for mountain lions and wolves, but they can still function as critical refuges for birds and pollinators otherwise displaced by human development. In this context active human management is far more likely to play a vital role. That’s okay though. As I’ve written previously, playing in the dirt actually brings some wonderful health benefits. A well planned garden that requires some muscle to maintain can be as good for us as it is for the species that use it. The Colorado River: an awaiting rewilding opportunity In March of 1963 the diversion tunnels for what would become the US Bureau of Reclamation’s most controversial project were closed. At that moment the waters of the Colorado River began to slowly back up behind Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell was born. Located in a remote section of desert on the Utah/Arizona border, Lake Powell has only briefly ever reached capacity in its now more than 50 years of existence. Between seepage into the surrounding sandstone and evaporation, the lake loses nearly one million acre feet of water a year that, in spite of the name of the government agency that gave birth to it, is never actually reclaimed for agricultural use or as drinking water. According to the Bureau of Reclamation’s own website, between “two and three percent of the lake’s water evaporates into the atmosphere each year.” In addition, “About 13.4 million acre feet (16,500 million cubic meters), or almost a third of the reservoir’s capacity” was absorbed into the porous sandstone of Glen Canyon just during the years the lake was filling. That absorption continues to this day. Photo by Rainer Krienke on Unsplash. Lake Powell (formerly Glen Canyon), USA. The Late David Brower and other environmental activists have pointed to the canyon submerged beneath the waters of Lake Powell on the Utah/Arizona border as an excellent candidate for restoration. Even though it is far from the largest river, the Colorado River is among the most overtaxed rivers in the world. Its watershed provides water to every major metropolitan area between Denver and Los Angeles and irrigates hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land. Given this reality, having so much of it go toward sustaining a giant evaporation pond in the middle of a remote desert is a waste from a human as well as environmental perspective. In the environmental classic A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold describes the 1922 trip he and his brother took to the Colorado River Delta. If you’ve visited the delta recently, as I have, Leopold’s description of it reads like a work of fiction. He writes that “On the map the Delta was bisected by the river, but in fact the river was nowhere and everywhere, for he [the river]could not decide which of a hundred green lagoons offered the most pleasant and least speedy path to the Gulf.” Today it is considered a good year when the Colorado River makes it to the Sea of Cortez at all. Even then the small portion of the river that does find its way there is typically a fetid, briny rivulet contaminated with chemical fertilizer and hardened with minerals concentrated by evaporation. Efforts have recently gotten underway to restore a small fraction of the Colorado River Delta to its former glory. A December 2014 article in National Geographic Magazine described the effects of a “pulse flow” of just over 105,000 acre feet of water that started with a release from Hoover Dam a week upstream. The results of that release were dramatic, and provide a glimpse of what could happen if a stronger more reliable flow were provided regularly to the Delta. The more than 800,000 acre feet lost each year to evaporation and absorption at Lake Powell immediately comes to mind as a possible source for such a renewal. “Man always kills the thing he loves, and so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness,” Aldo Leopold wrote at the end of his chapter describing the time he and his brother spent exploring the Colorado River Delta. “Some say we had to,” he continued. “Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?” We may never get the Colorado River Delta of Aldo Leopold’s youth back, but the signs of recovery at sites benefitting from the pulse flow of 2014 do show that even after receiving seemingly fatal blows ecosystems can prove more resilient than we give them credit for. As Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project put it, the Delta “isn’t dead,” but “it’s been dormant, and if you add water it will come back to life.” Wildife management as actionless action We’ve fallen into the bad habit of seeing natural relationships through a linear zero sum lens. For example, if we like to eat something and another animal also likes to eat the same thing, killing off the species that’s in competition with us will, we consistently think, necessarily increase the availability of the creature(s) we like to eat. This idea turns out to be as wrong as it is simplistic. Wolves, coyotes, whales, seals, sea otters… In each case our eradication policies have backfired. The removal of the wolf turned out to have huge deleterious consequences for beaver populations, aspen stands, and many other components of the ecosystem. Overhunting whales ended up having a major negative impact on phytoplankton, which a variety of fish populations rely upon that humans as well as whales consume. Likewise, killing seals to protect fish species we consume had the opposite effect. As George Manbiot put it in The Guardian, “The fishermen who have insisted that predators such as seals should be killed might have been reducing, not enhancing, their catch.” Our usually misguided wildlife management policies are perhaps the best example we have where the ancient Taoist concept of actionless action would, if applied, have tremendous positive consequences. Nature does not operate under zero sum rules. Predators, while obviously a threat to individual prey, play a critical role in maintaining the entire ecosystem. A healthy ecosystem is more productive than an unhealthy one, leaving more and better services for all species, including humans, to take advantage of. There’s no need to reintroduce wolves again to the Rockies. All we need to do now is allow those already occupying the Greater Yellowstone Area to migrate unmolested to their ancestor’s old haunts. Likewise, just leaving the ocean’s whales, seals and otters alone will, in the long-run, likely be sufficient to facilitate their eventual recovery. Any interventions we do undertake, however, must be for the purpose of restoring species to areas where they no longer exist or are extremely rare. Hunting one species for the “benefit” of another hasn’t paid dividends in the past and isn’t likely to in the future. Ecosystems are just too complex for us to know with any degree of certainty what the outcome will be if we again undertake such efforts. Sea urchins are a staple of the sea otter diet. Sea urchins eat kelp and other plant matter. Eliminating sea otters has resulted in urchin population explosions which have devasted kelp forests upon which many fish depend. Image: wikimedia Rewilding from local parks to the backyard Personal and public habitats much closer to home provide excellent opportunities for both casual and more hands on approaches to environmental restoration. Obviously, our yards and city parks will never be wild in the sense that most people use that word. But they can play a key role in our conservation efforts none-the-less. Consider Seattle’s Pollinator Pathway. This project is obviously targeting bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinators rather than the ecosystem as a whole. But by providing needed support for creatures that often struggle in urban and agricultural settings, the project increases the capacity of these critical species to absorb environmental stress and ultimately thrive. The Pollinator Pathway runs only a mile along Seattle’s Columbia Street. However, it demonstrates the feasibility of much larger efforts that can be woven into any city’s infrastructure. These types of projects are only limited by the imagination of urban planners and architects and the willingness of local citizens and policymakers to make them a reality. If implemented on a large enough scale, the benefits to pollinators desperately seeking diverse habitats free of large scale pesticide and herbicide contamination could reverse decades long population declines. According to bee expert Noah Wilson-Rich, urban bees already overwinter far better than rural bees. The year-to-year survival rate for bees in city beehives is more than 60%, while for rural beehives it’s only 40%. Though we are uncertain why bees seem to fare so well in cities, the fact remains that even the most crowded human environments can play a key role in the recovery of insects critical to both our own well-being and that of the more than 250,000 species of flowering plants that share this planet with us. Conclusion: It’s only a slight exaggeration to say the research opportunities that extensive rewilding would provide are practically endless. This will be especially true if we adopt a broad view of the concept instead of a narrow absolutist one. As the case of urban bees show, rewilding is something that happens along a spectrum rather than being an either/or proposition. No matter how far we take our rewilding efforts in any given case, humans will always remain a component of the ecosystem. Any attempt to integrate even a little bit of the non-human world into our life will provide rich opportunities to enhance our understanding of the dynamic relationships that sustain earth’s biosphere. But before arriving there we must take a leap of faith that is especially difficult in a culture where our first impulse is to attack and conquer those parts of the natural world that do not quickly or easily submit to our wishes. When faced with stiff resistance we are more likely to destroy what’s in our way than see the wisdom of bending like reeds in a stiff wind. As we approach 9 billion people and the climate change crisis becomes an ever more imminent threat to our quality of life, that attitude will have to change. Applying a form of actionless action through rewilding offers us a profound example of how we might go about changing it. Follow Craig on Twitter or read him on 71Republic.com. Other stories by Craig Axford that you may enjoy include:

https://craig-axford.medium.com/why-taoisms-best-idea-our-most-radical-environmental-restoration-plans-are-made-for-each-other-cbc988658a3

['Craig Axford']

2018-08-22 00:07:51.345000+00:00

['Sustainability', 'Politics', 'Environment', 'Science', 'Philosophy']

Did I Mention My Friend Jerie?

Jenny Jedeikin’s work has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone, The Advocate, The UK's Oh Comely; read more at jennyjedeikin.com. Follow

https://medium.com/spiralbound/did-i-mention-my-friend-jerie-e45a3976ac7c

['Jenny Jedeikin']

2018-07-19 16:30:06.177000+00:00

['Jenny Jedeikin', 'Comics', 'Relationships', 'Family', 'Life']

Grandmother of the Southern Hills

“white fog on forest” by Philipp Schlabs on Unsplash “Mean As Ever” She replied, Laughing. We all laughed too She is Grandmother Of the southern hills, The antipode of mean, Quiet storm of love, Quenching. Cruel winds Spread her seeds On the rocky ground. Amidst the cold Fell towers Of neglect, Indifference She is Grandmother Of warm small beauty. Nurturer of young Roots take hold. The only safe harbor, The last bastion, Steadfast beacon. Shining through The breakers, Unfailing. The lantern room She is Grandmother Keeper of Light. Steadfast and shining, Melting. Arctic stone hearts Shaping clay spirit With kind Hands of devotion.

https://medium.com/gwendolyn-saoirse-the-blog/grandmother-of-the-southern-hills-c56c22482bf5

['Gwen Saoirse']

2018-09-29 16:10:54.349000+00:00

['Grandmother', 'Love', 'Poetry', 'Family', 'Grandparents']

[Multi-Sub] Cherry Magic! Ep 12 “Japanese Drama/BL” 2020

[Multi-Sub] Cherry Magic! Ep 12 “Japanese Drama/BL” 2020 “Japanese Drama/BL” Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (2020) Ep 12 [ENG.SUB] on TV Tokyo’s ⚜ — Official~Watch Streaming !! Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (2020) Se01Ep012 S1 Episode 12 — “Full`Episode” [4KHD Quality] ⚜ Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! 1x12 Watch “Full`Episode” ⚜ Official Partners “[ TV Tokyo ]” TV Shows & Movies ▼ Watch Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Episode 12 (Multiple-SUB) ▼ ⚜ — WATCH FULL EPISODES Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!. Season 1 Episode 12[ULTRA ᴴᴰ1080p] Link play Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Eps 12 ⚜ — 360p : PLAY NOW ⚜ — 480p : PLAY NOW ⚜ — 720p : PLAY NOW It’s complicated: A thirty-year-old virgin gets more than he bargained for when his newfound magical power reveals he’s the object of his male coworker’s affections! Adachi, a thirty-year-old virgin, discovers he has the magical power to read the minds of people he touches. Unfortunately, the ability just makes him miserable since he doesn’t know how to use it well! And to make matters worse, when he accidentally reads the mind of his very competent, handsome colleague, Adachi discovers the guy has a raging crush on none other than Adachi himself! Things are about to get VERY awkward! Title : Cherry Magic! Episode Title : Episode 12 Release Date : 25 Dec 2020 Runtime : 25 minutes Genres : Comedy , Romance Networks : Tencent Video, TV Tokyo ▼ Enjoy And Happy Watching ▼ Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Ep 12 Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Episode 12 Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Multilpe Sub Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Stream!! Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! NOW Watch Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Episode 12 Watching Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Episode 12 Streaming Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Episode 12 Watch Free Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Episode 12 ❏ STREAMING MEDIA ❏ Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream identifies the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, instead of the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies particularly to telecommunications networks, as almost all of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, music CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet. For instance, users whose Internet connection lacks satisfactory bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content. Live streaming is the delivery of Internet content in real-time much as live television broadcasts content over the airwaves with a television signal. Live internet streaming takes a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio tracks interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is. Streaming is an option to file datvloading, a process where the end-user obtains the entire file for this content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to get started on playing digital video or digital sound content before the complete file has been transmitted. The word “streaming media” can connect with media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are considered “streaming text”. ❏ COPYRIGHT CONTENT ❏ Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its atver the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[1][1][1][12][12] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[6][12][1] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States. Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][12][10][11][11] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[1] Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsistent.[112] Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 120 to 100 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[12] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration. It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[112] ❏ GOODS OF SERVICES ❏ Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[1] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and extensible to a large group of unrelated people. The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[1] Credit is extended by a creditor, also knatv as a lender, to a debtor, also knatv as a borrower. FIND US: ✓ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ ✓ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ ✓ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/

https://medium.com/cherry-maho-cherry-magic-episode-12-eng-sub/multi-sub-cherry-magic-ep-12-japanese-drama-bl-2020-35e80f2c4481

['Ray A Scott']

2020-12-24 03:40:02.132000+00:00

['LGBTQ', 'Gay', 'Comedy', 'Romance']

Canada’s Newly Proposed Bill C-11: A Historic Step For Improved Canadian Privacy

Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (Source: BetaKit) The Canadian government proposed a new privacy law that would give Canadians more control over how companies might collect and potentially exploit their data and personal information. Even more than that, the new privacy law promises hefty fines to be imposed for any company that breaks the new stricter rules. The context of the new bill The Canadian government explained in a news release its justification behind the timing of the new law being linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic having transformed how Canadians not only work, connect with one another, but also access information — making digital technology the most important it has ever been yet. As a result, the privacy of Canadian citizens has become more at risk, and the government has recognized their responsibility to Canadians are able to lead their everyday lives in a newly digital space and be able to know their data and personal information is secure and respected. The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry in his introduction of the proposal elaborated on how: “As Canadians increasingly rely on technology we need a system where they know how their data is used and where they have control over how it is handled. For Canada to succeed, and for our companies to be able to innovate in this new reality, we need a system founded on trust with clear rules and enforcement. This legislation represents an important step towards achieving this goal”. What can be expected The legislation introduced Tuesday November 17th, reveals that the Canadian government has plans to prioritize user rights in the increasingly unsafe digital world. The offenses committed by companies are to be subject to paying fines based on their revenues — not flat fees. The penalties for some of the administrative offences have the potential to be as high as 3% of the offending company’s global revenues or $10 million CAD, whichever is greater. Companies with serious offences have the potential to be subject to fines as much as 5% of their global revenues or $25 million CAD, whichever amount is higher. Trudeau intends to ensure that Canada has the strictest penalties among its fellow Group of Seven countries France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The bill is officially titled “An Act to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act and the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts”, or better known as Bill C-11, is a historic event in the making. The new bill is the first significant attempt to alter and improve Canadian privacy law in several decades. While the details of the bill have yet to be released as the legislation is still to be tabled, Bain’s mandate letter outlines the promises to come. The mandate letter written reflects the orders from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and discusses the task of creating a draft for a “digital charter”. This charter is to include legislation that would protect Canadians but also provide an “appropriate compensation” when the personal data of citizens does get breached. Among the promises in the letter, the new bill is to encourage a better protection of Canadians’ personal data through new and stricter regulations for large digital companies. Notably, the bill is to appoint a data commissioner to oversee these regulations and see to it that there is more competition in the digital marketplace — but for the right reasons. Other rules to be included are increased transparency and control when Canadians’ personal information is in the hands of companies, the freedom for Canadians to move their information to and from different organizations securely, and ensuring Canadians are able to have their information destroyed on demand. The bill also aims to provide the Privacy Commissioner with enhanced and broader power — to have the ability to force organizations to comply with the said rules, as well as being able to put an end to an organization’s data collection or use of personal information completely. An industry perspective The Canadian Marketing Association has been following the development of the bill very carefully, and engaging with the government to receive as much information as possible to prepare in advance to the bill coming into effect. While one might expect marketers to be deeply concerned about the new bill, it appears there are a few positive outcomes of the bill: “Marketers will be pleased that the CPPA preserves Canada’s model of express or implied consent, giving organizations the choice of which type of consent is most acceptable.” Even though the bill’s creation means tighter security for personal information and imposes difficulties for companies and marketers who rely on much of said data to do their jobs, the bill also proposes new ways for data to be safely collected. The bill outlines exemptions to consent for collection — the use or even the disclosure of Canadians’ personal information — for “socially beneficial purposes”, research and development, certain prescribed business activities, transfers between service providers, and for those organizations that are parties to a completed or prospective business transaction. Given that the categories of information being collected and used are in compliance with the regulations in the act, marketers are free to use any publicly available information without consent. However, that does not go without saying for Canadian businesses and marketers especially, the new bill has many changes that will take time to adjust to. Some of the new rights assigned to Canadians such as the right for consumers to request a company completely deletes all their personal information on demand, or to transfer it to another service provider will prove itself to be a new industry challenge. Luckily, with all of its uncertainty and challenges on the way, the law has a long way to go before it becomes finalized. A significant amount of lead-up time assigned before the privacy regulations do change will provide businesses and marketers alike some time to prepare in advance. This time will include up to an 18 month implementation period right after the bill becomes a law. The future of Canadian business is about to change — the question is how will Canadians react as both citizens with new rights and business owners or marketers with higher stakes than ever?

https://medium.com/junior-economist/canadas-newly-proposed-digital-charter-bill-c-11-8cd4bc32356e

['Naoshin Fariha']

2020-11-30 01:04:41.697000+00:00

['Privacy Law', 'Bill C 11', 'Marketing', 'Privacy', 'Data']

How To Be Productive & Manage Your Time As A Freelancer

Published By Nick Tubis: Watch Video Tutorial Here Transcript: Today’s episode is all about productivity and how you can become as productive as possible as a freelancer. A lot of freelancers struggle in the beginning with managing their time. Because they’re used to working 9–5 jobs, where they’ve had to be at the office. But now when they become their own boss, they’re not really sure what to do or how to organize their time. I’m going to breakdown a strategy that I use that helps me 10x my productivity and that helps get me way more done. What I do is I pre-plan my day the day before. And I base my day based on my biorythms and you should to. So for me I’m a morning person, and like to start working around 6AM but I go to bed early. I know a lot of successful freelancers who sleep in and work until 2AM. It doesn’t matter as long as you pre plan your days. So what you want to do is at the end of the day get out a pen and piece of paper and schedule your day in 90 minute chunks. So this could 8AM-9:30Am Apply for 5 jobs. 9AM-10:30M work on client project. With 15 minute to 30 minute breaks in between. This gets your mind thinking and visualizing about the day ahead and allows you to get way more done. One other pro tip. I learned this from a freelancer who has a lot of clients and has made millions on Upwork. If you can give yourself 2 hours during the workday for unplanned tasks. As a business owner there are always things that come up unexpectadly. By doing this it will help you prepare for anything that is thrown your way. Now besides planning your day ahead I also plan my week on Sunday’s. I really like doing this because it helps you strategize on the goals you want to accomplish not just daily to do items. If you want to do this too, what you can do is get out a pen and paper and draw a big t on a piece of paper that has 4 quadrants. Three of those quadrants are for your 3 big goals for the year with an exact deadline on them. I’ve found adding deadlines to your goals makes them a lot more real, and puts the pressure on you to act. Kind of like when you’re in school and you have a project due. One of your goals could be a wealth goal like making a certain amount of money per month. One of your other goals could be a health goal. Like for me its getting to 170 lbs. And another goal could be for your relationship or another area for your life. Than underneeth each goal you plug in all of the tasks that you need to do to make that goal happen. Then you just execute. If you would like to learn more about how to become productive as a freelancer check out our freelancer client acquisition system online training program at the link below. Thanks for tuning in and I will see you on the next episode.

https://medium.com/@NickTubis/how-to-be-productive-manage-your-time-as-a-freelancer-358d06e3d004

['Nick Tubis']

2020-02-21 23:39:48.180000+00:00

['Motivation', 'Time Management', 'Digital Nomad', 'Freelance', 'Digital Marketing']

The Army of the Avocado

Did you hear one started a war? Added pain and bullets covering hills? Now healthy avocados grandmas defend; field after field mafia kills for them. Worth too much money! Take it from our people; for American cash, for American beauty. I wrote this poem using the first word of every line in my short story describing The Army of the Avocado. You can find it HERE:

https://medium.com/blueinsight/the-army-of-the-avocado-18fbe5f47167

['Moni Vazquez']

2020-12-09 13:50:25.873000+00:00

['Poetry', 'Blue Insights', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Short Story', 'War']

I Hate Oprah: Why We Need More Work-in-Progress Leaders

Not a perfect replica of my jean jacket — but close enough (Licensed from Adobe Stock)p Oprah has always hit a nerve with me. For my generation, especially women, Oprah was more than a successful role model and leader, she was a force to be reckoned with. Everyone loves Oprah and I kinda’ hate her and I never really understood why. I inconsistently watched her show, heard a lot about her background and read all the books in her Book Club but I was never a ‘fan’. I have heard her very compelling story — a youth of struggle and abuse and her very real ongoing personal and professional struggles. I understand and appreciate her contributions to breaking down barriers for women. She has tackled sensitive issues and been transparent and vulnerable about her own experiences. She has enabled others development — authors, filmmakers and developing professionals, straight shooting rednecks (you’re the best Dr. Phil!) — paying her success forward in so many ways. Rationally, by my own argument above, she is someone to be lauded and admired. Yet I did not have that doe-eyed admiration and I am left asking the question I ask so often: What the hell is wrong with me? At the ripe old age of 40, I am finally figuring somethings out. With life experience, confidence, two kids and a mortgage, I now wear floppy hats out the sun instead of Hawaiian Tropic, fall asleep on the couch before the 10 o’clock news is over and shout things like “Do you have underwear on?” and “Don’t put chocolate milk on your cereal!” At this point, the only thing that makes me feel young is the occasional outbreak of middle-aged acne (thanks universe) It isn’t all downside though. That little bit of experience and perspective means I can properly think about what I react to — positively or negatively — and why. I have always had such an intensely negative reaction to Oprah and, upon reflection, a handful of other super impressive women — so what’s my problem? Am I jealous and bitter? Do I feel inferior and like I have so far to go? Do I feel like I am so far behind and everyday others move forward and I’m standing still? Do I feel like they have faced so much more adversity while I have largely lived a life of advantage and that this fact alone makes me even pathetic? (pick 3…I can’t decide which one to cut but go with three thoughts) In a word — Yes. All these things. When viewed as a race, they aren’t just beating me. They are kicking my ass. If I back it up and frame it less like a race and more like an athletic competition — a competition where there are different weight classes and categories, where like athletes compete with like athletes and each person decides whether they want to go to the Olympics if the rec-league is okay — I start to feel differently. Suddenly, the women that I have looked at and indirectly compared myself to cease to be the ‘other’ and start to be a group of real people. People who are the culmination of choices they have made, the experiences they have endured and the effort they have invested. They are what they have done and I can admire and appreciate that regardless of the finished product. At 38 I am clear and confident about my choices. I am letting go of the jealousy and resentment of others who are, at first glance, kicking my ass. The truth is they are not beating me — some of them aren’t in my weight class, some of them are ‘all-around-athletes’ which is not what I want to be, and some are killing it but in a domain that I don’t care about. I want to be able to appreciate what they contribute without becoming distracted or demotivated by it. They aren’t my competition — they are just other athletes trying to hone their skills. This is the distinction that I think many of us fail to make — and I continue to struggle with. Perspective sometimes arrives in a moment of grace. Retaining that perspective and applying it to your thoughts and daily life requires effort. I think it took me 38 years to figure this out for a couple of reasons. First is that there is a culture of success and perception control and in the age of social media we have more and more influence our public persona. I call this the Facebook Family phenomenon. This is created by folks who post perfect family photos and use #blessed all the time; meanwhile I am in a full sweat trying to get out the door shouting “Put your boots on!” and trying to scrape the yogurt off my suit jacket. Not enough people are talking about their struggles and their screw-ups and when they really got it wrong. Ultimately, they will talk about it in their biographies but only if they make it and are successful enough to write a biography and now the failure is just an anecdote to an overall ‘leadership journey’. I want us to start talking about our failures now and not in self-congratulatory humble-brag kind of way. Stuff we screwed up in the last two years or, in my case, two days. We learn the most from the mistakes of others; hearing and learning those lessons without having to endure that pain or setback gives a kind of perspective that is priceless. Anyone with an effective and authentic mentoring relationship knows this deep in their bones. Here’s the rub — Not enough of us have those mentors because we are too intimidated by supposedly perfect leaders. The second reason is that leaders are often presented as the finished product. They don’t pop up with a baseball card of stats outlining all the choices they have made, the mistakes and failures they have endured and the raw effort they have invested. They are held up as success stories, as examples of what is possible ‘if you really put your mind to it’ and ‘lean in’. The implication is that it is either brute-force effort and willpower and if we all just work harder, anything is within our grasp. The alternate implication is that leaders are pre-destined to greatness. I think that’s rubbish. I think it is far more strategic and a lot messier. I think making leaders is like making sausage and I want to see how the sausage is made. Young and aspiring leaders need to see how the sausage is made because it is gross and ugly and probably not all the sausages turn out. There are also lots of different kinds of sausage — spicy, mild, big BBQ versions and small delicate versions. Hell, I think there are even tofu sausages. At 38 I am working to understand myself, make choices that work for me and then looking to see who has or is making similar choices. Then it becomes a case of finding others competing in our sport, our weight-class, our league or the league we aspire to. These are the people who should our inspiration and our mentors and our heroes. Lots of amazing people do amazing things but is that the amazing thing you want to do? It doesn’t mean you have to hate them or resent them or rip them down. Rather acknowledge it and move on; as Amy Poehler describes in her brilliant biography Yes, Please it’s okay to say “Good for you, not for me”. What I need — what I think we can be to each other — are ‘Work-in-Progress’ leaders. Other people who are training hard, climbing up whatever hill and tripping and falling and getting muddy along the way. Elite athletes look to train with people who are like them and also better than them and leadership can be the same. Oprah is still competing and while it might be in a different category, I can objectively appreciate she has always sought out competition to make her better. So my reaction was not to her as a person, it was frustration with having a two-dimensional understanding of what makes her successful. Not only was I competing with someone in a different sport and weight class than me, I was competing with a made-up cardboard cut-out of her, a caricature of a real person. At 38, I know how distracting and silly that is. I don’t really hate Oprah. The truth is I don’t really hate anyone — except for the girl in high-school who came to the house party I threw (and got busted for) and took my acid-washed jean jacket. I will hate her until the day I die. I just want to see the sausage. And get that jean jacket back

https://medium.com/the-ascent/i-hate-oprah-why-we-need-more-work-in-progress-leaders-d1242d853929

['Leah Hunt']

2019-05-09 12:22:13.611000+00:00

['Personal Growth', 'Professional Development', 'Coaching', 'Leadership', 'Humour']

Everything I’m About To Tell You About My Craigslist Roommate Is True

Everything I’m About To Tell You About My Craigslist Roommate Is True He has a snake… Photo courtesy of Pixabay He has a snake. He keeps a dead mouse in the freezer, for his snake. The snake has not eaten in three months. I have a cat. My roommate has severe sleep apnea. Our bedrooms share a wall. He sleeps from 4pm to 11am. I know because I cannot sleep at any point during this time. He does not clean his hair from the shower’s drain. He has a ponytail. He does not know how to use a toilet bowl brush. He does not know paper towel can’t be flushed. He does not do dishes. He does not have dishes. He fills my coffee mug with hot water to thaw his dead mouse. (When she calls to ask how you like the mug she handcrafted in a make-it-yourself pottery studio, and the answer is your Craigslist roommate has been dangling a frozen mouse into it by the tail, what do you tell your aunt, from Portland?) The snake does not eat the mouse. The snake has not eaten in three months. He eats at 2am. He soaks penne in tubs of cold water. He never cooks the noodles and I don’t know why. He lost his sales job at a mattress store, after he signed our lease. He says it was a simple misunderstanding. He says management suspects him of stealing $250 cash. He’s offered to deliver my share of rent, himself, in-person. He showed no offence when I declined. He told me he was sorry for not paying the utilities. He told me he was sorry for not answering my messages. He told me he was sorry he could not pay rent. Then he left for a ten-day family trip to Cuba. He returned in a seersucker suit with a goatee and a fedora. Because he does not pick up his mail or Amazon deliveries, the hallway is crowded with boxes containing pieces of the Battle of Hogwarts Lego Kit and Legend of Zelda chess set, for months. He is ten years older than me. He is thirty. He tells me he loves the apartment and the neighborhood and is excited to have finally found a place cool enough for him to settle down. He cannot pay rent. He tells me things are getting serious between him and his girl. I have never seen her. He says that’s because she lives in Kenya; her visa application has been denied four times. He speaks to her on the phone at 3am. He says what’s great about their relationship is that they’re just so comfortable that they can talk about anything together. For example: he’ll ask, “Who’s the better Avenger, Iron-Man or Captain America?” And she’ll ask, “Will you sponsor my visa to America?” He’s confident with his help, she’ll get in. He applied to one job a month and a half ago, and says he’ll get that too, because of his “superior social skills.” He does not ask permission to invite guests to the apartment. He is renting the family room out like an AirBnB to baggage claim staff from the airport. He says there’s opportunity there, they have a long commute. He says he got a new fulltime job. It’s “a solid Monday to Wednesday gig.” He just bought a green tuxedo for St. Patrick’s Day. He cannot pay rent. His Facebook cover photo reads: “‘Idleness is a Fool’s Desire — Irish Proverb.’” Noxious odors fill the hall from his room when he leaves his door ajar. He has accumulated enough junk to appear in reality TV. He has hoarded enough pop-culture memorabilia and pseudo-spiritual paraphernalia to be a character in an arthouse film by Harmony Korine. There is so much trash in his room he does not have a square foot left to stand. His mattress is covered in candy wrappers and bags of chips. (How does a man remove bed sheet stains left by Flamin’ Hot Cheetos?) He sleeps on a bed of garbage. He tells the landlord he’s working on getting things cleaned up soon, he’s just been busy with his fulltime Monday to Wednesday gig, and is waiting on a local autism center to get back to him about sending over a community volunteer. My thirty-year-old roommate has a fifteen-year-old with Aspergers come once a week to clean his room. He says it gives the kid something to do. For this service, he does not pay a thing. The boy’s name is Tom. He comes when my roommate is not home. He is a very nice boy. He has, astonishingly, zero acne. Tom cleans everything in my roommate’s room. Tom removes garbage. Tom folds laundry. Tom dusts. Tom vacuums. Tom mops. Tom sweeps. Tom sorts misplaced things. Tom asks if he should return the snake’s terrarium cover after washing it. I tell him, No. My roommate’s snake has not eaten in three months. It is weak. My cat is not. I feed her the best stuff. I treat her fairly. I respect her and she respects me. We live harmoniously. She brings me her prey to show loyalty.

https://medium.com/slackjaw/everything-im-about-to-tell-you-about-my-craigslist-roommate-is-true-11ed34e079b

['Geoffrey Line']

2019-09-15 15:31:01.006000+00:00

['Craigslist', 'Humor', 'Comedy', 'Roommates', 'Apartments']

Make Money From Article You Write For Your Blog

Is it conceivable to bring in cash composing articles for your blog? Make Money From Article You Write For Your Blog There are numerous individuals who have attempted it and most have fizzled. However there are different scholars who not just procure a respectable pay from their blog, yet some of them really acquire in excess of a full-time wage. So would could it be that they do well? For what reason are their blog entries so famous and how would they bring in cash from publishing content to a blog? Indeed, regardless, on the off chance that you need to compose articles for your blog, there are three significant things that you need to consider before you start. Be that as it may, when you know what these are, it can launch your vocation as a blogger. Know Your Reason For Writing Articles. Make Money From Article You Write For Your Blog - This is truly significant. You need to really (and I mean in a real sense) ponder why you need to compose articles. When you have your explanation, at that point each article you compose can function as a fighter for you, going out to accomplish your article composing objective — as long as you understand what that seems to be. >>> How to Make Money on the Weekends <<< How Are You Going to Earn Money? There are a few distinct ways that you can bring in cash composing articles for your blog. You can think of them to bring in cash from PPC promoting, or to sell an item, or to sell a help or to do member advertising (or you can decide to utilize these). When you know how you need to bring in cash from your blog you would then be able to compose articles that draw in the most focused on perusers so you can boost your blog pay. What Action Are You Looking For? You need to likewise understand what activity you need your perusers to take. When they wrap up perusing your articles, they generally need to accomplish something so you need to understand what that is. Make Money From Article You Write For Your Blog Do you need them to tap on a PPC commercial? To make a buy? To join your email list? To find out about an assistance you’re advertising? To pursue more data? Make certain of what it is that you need them to do and afterward advise them to do it. Furthermore, in particular, remember that every one of your articles/presents need on read like a story so your perusers continue perusing. All in all, ensure each article has a start, a center and an end. Start with an acquaintance of what you’re going with let them know, let them know, at that point disclose to them how this data can help them, and what to do straightaway. >>> Skills To Make Money Online <<< That way the entirety of your articles can be your multitude of troopers, assisting you with bringing in cash from all that you compose.

https://medium.com/@emmas26/make-money-from-article-you-write-for-your-blog-e94a0b9ed8f7

['Emmas Allan']

2020-12-21 16:28:23.151000+00:00

['Marketing', 'Online Marketing', 'Make Money Online', 'Online Business', 'Business']

Web 3.0 is a worldwide digital factory

It will be beneficial for the user to create a positive digital footprint. Not just a profile in a business social network, but links to existing projects, professional content, and recognition in virtual communities. With no need for authority regulation, the Internet will no longer stay anonymous, because users will be interested in gaining their reputation. Decentralization matters What technologies form the basis of Web 3.0 and continue development? Of course, these are AI, Big Data, and Semantic web which are already used in the recommendation and advertising systems. They allow us to analyze user behavior more accurately. Internet of things data enriches user-profiles and consumer habits information. Various personal and transport trackers, smart home systems, Bluetooth beacons in shopping centers allow services to create a comfortable environment for their users and retain the audience. Decentralized technologies in relation to Web 3.0 allow us to get more information about users and improve their experience of interacting with services. For example, there are startups that adopt decentralized databases to store a user’s medical information, which they can share with institutions and services. Medical organizations will be able to provide better care to patients and add more data to their dossiers in a decentralized registry. User location logs from various sources collected in the decentralized ledger can also be used by recommendation systems. Some services will help you find fellow travelers, and others will show you that there is a specialized hobby store along the way. There are startups that help users create their digital identity. In much the same way that you use your Facebook account to log in to other sites, you can give them access to your digital identity. The global digital office will employ individuals based on more comprehensive information than their CV. Even reviews and recommendations do not provide enough information and can be falsified. But graphs from social connections, contributions to projects, and open portfolios allow you to create an accurate profile of an employee. Such data, stored in a decentralized manner, will construct a digital twin. For example, a designer participates in open and closed projects using digital tools and services in which he is authorized through his decentralized digital identity. His digital profile will include a list of projects automatically generated by these services. Artificial intelligence will be able to evaluate the designer’s distributed portfolio and recommend it to suitable clients. EVEN team works on a decentralized data source that will allow data owners to manage their digital profiles. This is a distributed database and file storage. A distributed file system is required for storing photos, scanned copies of documents, specialized data formats, and other content. Such data will not be inputted manually by the user, but it will be generated as a result of their interaction with various services. Currently, such data is stored in silos, for example in social networks and other platforms. As a part of the Web 3.0 concept, data must be stored in decentralized storage to be manageable by its owner. A user can block access by services to the data or easily transfer data to another service. The services will compete for the ability to access such data, which means that the user experience will improve. We expect decentralized technologies to expand their scope from financial services to user applications. This will be the transition to Web 3.0.

https://medium.com/coinmonks/web-3-0-is-a-worldwide-digital-factory-97b60b1db448

['Even Foundation']

2020-08-25 13:50:40.014000+00:00

['Decentralized Web', 'Web', 'Decentralization', 'Web3', 'Decentralized']

Taxidermy and Why it Won‘t Work

This week, rather than focusing on the Blue caravan consisting of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, and other white supremacist groups riding into D.C. to defend their hero, I prefer to focus on the largest group of American voters, 3 million more than cast their votes for Biden, and 8 million more than cast their votes for #45, the 80 million out of a total of 238 American voters who did not vote. They are the largest percentage of the electorate, 33 1/3 % to be exact. Who are these people? It helps to understand that they tend to fall into one of three categories: those who can’t vote because they are either undocumented, or incarcerated, or paroled; and those discouraged from voting because of impediments like strict ID laws or lack of a street address; and those so disaffected by US politics they no longer care to vote — if they ever did. For obvious reasons, trying to determine how many undocumented people could not vote is speculative at best. That number ranges from 10.5 million to 12 million or 3.2% to 3.5% of the total population. Incarcerated people .7% of the population, cannot vote. That equals 2,310.371 people. some of them simply held while awaiting trial, the highest percentage of incarcerated people in the world. Additionally twenty-seven states still deny the franchise to felony probationers (fortunately the trend is slowly changing to restore the vote to people who have served their time) such that 5.2 million ex-felons cannot vote. These two groups, undocumented immigrants and incarcerated people and ex-felons account for a total of plus/or/minus 20,110,471 million. If we exclude these two groups, that still leaves 217,989,529 non-voters some of whom, for a spectrum of reasons, have been discouraged from voting. For some of these, strict voter ID laws cause a number of black, Hispanic, Native American, elderly, transgender, and poor voters to fall between the cracks. Pressure for strict ID laws comes mostly from the GOP (for the obvious reason that in all probability most of this group is thought to vote Democrat) but the laws are in a constant state of flux, and the number is hard to determine. For other folks, many without a permanent street address, voting was impossible. (For example, one year ago as I drove north through the length of Kern County, California I encountered not one human being aside from the clerks behind convenience store counters in the gas stations we patronized. I discovered where many of Kern County’s people now reside: the railroad right of way between Fresno and Hanford, a distance of 34 miles, is lined with tent cities.) How many tent dwellers, evicted either by landlords, or mortgage default and other folks without permanent street addresses exist at present in the US? As the Depression worsens, the number mounts. Clearly the Office of Government Statistics has not busied itself tallying their number. According to the August 6, 2020 edition of the Washington Post, #45 called for another eviction moratorium, but push back by landlords did not help re-elect him. It’s safe to say, however, that even with a burning desire to vote, voter ID impediments, including not having a permanent address, might very well have offered this group of voters some discouragement. Was such desire present in non-tent-dwelling non-voters? Apparently not. And if not, why not? Elephant in the Room those, comfortable and otherwise, who did not care to vote For Biden, politics-as-before (“nothing will change”) shuns taking into account any of the many aspects of voter disillusion. A cursory look at his transitional team and at the appointment A list tells the story. Rahm Emanuel (“Liberals are fucking retards”) is now a Biden adviser, and in line for a cabinet post. Of the 23 who comprise the Biden Defense Department transition team, 8 are working for think tanks financed by all the preeminent defense contractors, the same folks who set Bush’s and Obamas war policies. Cecilia Muñoz, who defended family separation under Obama has joined the transition team. A flood of war mongering neocons are flocking to Biden, foreign policy hawks like Susan Rice, Samantha Power and Michele Flournoy. It’s important to remember that so far, the Middle East wars they aided and abetted have cost the American taxpayer $5 trillion, and to speculate how many homeless people, and how many food insecure people that $5 trillion might have helped, or how much PPE some of that $5 trillion could have provided to insure the safety of essential medical personnel as they battle a pandemic. Richard Stengel who has restrictive views of freedom of speech. is likely to head the US Agency for Global Media. Not only does the team consist of the greatest amalgam of multi millionaires ever assembled, but in the words of independent journalist Caitlin Johnstone, Biden “will have the most diverse, intersectional cabinet of mass murderers ever assembled.” And on Nov. 14, Fox News reported that Hillary Clinton, the Scourge of Libya, is under consideration as Biden’s ambassador to the UN. A Biden who stiffs the UN with a stuffed has-been like Hillary Clinton, and draws on a bunch of sclerotic neocons may very well be hitting the summit of the taxidermist’s art. But taxidermy never brought change about. It may very well be that, despite a boobytrapped two-party system, change, if it ever comes about, will prompt at least some part of that 33 1/3 percent of non-voting voters to declare itself. But, according to Information Clearing House, “the demographics of the recent election show no sign of a permanent majority for Democrats.” Without a Herculean effort on the part of a newly-galvanized post card and letter writing public joining old-time activists nationwide, don’t bet on either happening any time soon. URGE Biden to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. LISTEN as AOC calmly excoriates and absent Senate/ DEMAND Biden make family reunification a top priority. INSIST Barrett recuse herself from all Election-related cases. DEMAND Senate not confirm any more corporate lobbyists. URGE Biden to put people before banks and corporations. DONATE to Justice Democrats & Rashida Tlaib The Elders, founded by Mandela, warn baseless accusations of voter fraud by #45 endanger democracy worldwide. UN panel votes 163–5 in support of Palestinian statehood, end of occupation. US opposes. World’s public banks gather at first-ever summit. Bolivia President Arce approves bonus against hunger. If Bolivia can, why can’t we? Bolivian prosecutor’s office orders arrest of former ministers. Peruvians stage massive protests against legislative coup that ousted President Martin Vizcarra, Brazilian municipal elections show gains for Left. Dutch foreign minister seeks EU arms embargo on Turkey. India, China close in on plan to end months of border standoff. In victory of China over US hegemony in Asia, 15 Asian states sign huge new trade deal. Climate on agenda in first Russia visit by UK minister since 2017. World pushes ahead with climate action as US remains in limbo. Scotland may look at serious and long-standing concerns about #45’s business activities. EU slams Israel plans to construct new settler units in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds. UK troops to b e withdrawn from Afghanistan by Xmas as staying without US untenable. European Court upholds right to boycott Israel. Nova Scotia First Nation to launch lawsuits against non-indigenous fishers. for damages. Tribes, Dem governors, and Klamath dam owner announce salmon restoration plan. Manchester students revolt aster university demands they pay rents that 74% cannot afford. Manchester lecturers show solidarity with students following racial profiling. Okinawa protesters keep up years-long blockade of construction dump trucks at US airbase construction site in defiance of Japanese government . Amnesty warns US of culpability in rising Yemen civilian death toll if drone sale to UAE inked. US invasion forces convoy leaves illegal bases in Syrian territory to Iraq. After 4 years of hiding behind #45, populist Polish and Hungarian leaders suddenly exposed. New feminist peace initiative releases movement-driven foreign policy framework. About time: Longtime union members Pocan and Norcross announce labor caucus to advocate for workers in Congress. Pocan leads 40 Dems demanding condemnation of Israeli demolitions. AOC demands #45 non-payment of taxes be investigated. Don’t hold your breath department: urges to reject Ernest Moniz and choose climate champions for cabinet. 150 high-level government expert issue Climate 21 Projet Report urging Biden-Harris a running climate start. Public Citizen delivers robust transition agenda demands to Biden. Indigenous and progressive activists and lawmakers plan rally at DNC to push Biden in greener direction. Citing her ties to agribusiness and fossil fuels, 160 groups tell Biden Heitkamp is wrong choice for USD. Social Security defenders tell Biden to keep austerity-obsessed Bruce Reed far away from White House. Michigan governor moves to shut down Line 5 Pipeline to protect Great Lakes. Refusing to be bullied, Michigan governor rebukes #45 aid’s call for uprising over COVID measures. Nearly four dozen faith institutions announce divestment from fossil fuels. Chevron Phillips publishes climate report in response to investor concerns. Legal protest blasts plan for 430 square miles of fracking leases in Wyoming. With irrevocable justice on line, Dem lawmakers demand #45 administration put brakes on killing spree. Federal judge rules acting DHS head Chad Wolf unlawfully appointed, invalidates DACA suspension. Federal Court rejects latest #45 attack on DACA in Batalia Vidal v Wolf case. Judge blocks #45 administration policy using pandemic as excuse to kick out asylum seeking children. N.J. releases over 2 thousand incarcerated workers to help stop the pandemic spread, the largest single-day release in U.S. history. In 58-day-long vigil, members of Decarcerate Now, NC, gather outside exec mansion demanding Gov. Cooper use his powers of pardon to protest incarcerated during pandemic. Hunger enters third week at California’s largest prison. California ‘bans the box’ protecting formerly incarcerated people in the college admissions process. After defund police victory, Portland keeps marching. Mi’kmaq First Nations coalition takes control of major seafood company. Oregon City Voters recall mayor for downplaying police brutality against black people. With COVID surging,, school superintendent in Tippecanoe County Ind. suspends in-person education. Philly crocodile city council apologizes for deadly 1985 Move bombing. Abby Martin sues State of Georgia over Israel Loyalty Oath mandate. Proudly BDS: Jewish-led groups condemn Pompeo for declaring boycott-divestment movement anti-Semitic. Two Muslim women derive NYPD to change its practice of forcefully removing the hijab. Student action spurs student vote to help turn Georgia blue and defeat #45. As #45 seeks to shred food inspection riles, advocacy group endorses Rep. Marcia Fudge for Secy of Agriculture. Bloomington, MN unhoused community forms tenants union. A homeless camp in Rapid City, SD shut down by police moves to trust land outside town where indigenous people return to living traditionally. UAW workers at Johnson Controls go on trike, warning the company they may lose all their workers’ experience. Biden solidifies AZ victory as election officials counter #45 fraud lies in joint declaration. Biden signals flexibility on North Korea. Lindsay Graham under fire for allegations he urged legal ballots be tossed in Georgia. Following Berkeley, CA arrest of 5 G protester, city vows no more new permits for small cells will be issued. S.F.’s only Nigerian restaurant uses free food to support police violence activism.

https://medium.com/@cecilepineda/taxidermy-and-why-it-won-t-work-8d0036282efd

['Cecile Pineda']

2020-11-21 02:59:09.454000+00:00

['Housing', 'Hunger', 'Wall Street', 'Corporations', 'Conservation']

7 Steps to Buying a Rental Property

Buying a rental property is largely similar to buying a residential property. However, some important differences do exist. Although there is no complete guide on how to buy a rental property, below are the main steps which you need to follow once you have made the decision to buy an investment property. 1. Do your homework. Buying a rental property can be as exciting as buying your own home, but that doesn’t mean that you should rush before you have done proper research. Though you don’t need to be an expert in real estate investments or even in real estate, you have to do your homework properly. Start answering some simple questions to determine the best investment property for you: What kind of investment property do you want to buy? If it’s your first time buying a rental property, start small and simple. Look for an apartment, a duplex, or a small apartment building. Buying a large income property sounds tempting because of the expected higher profits, but it is also more costly and will require more work. Remember to not overwhelm yourself by starting bigger than you can manage or afford. Real estate investing is to a large extent learning-by-doing. After you have learnt the basics of it and have started making profit, you can think about expanding your rental property business by either replacing your first rental property with a bigger one or buying a second investment property. Related: Invest in Condos or Single-Family Homes? Which cities and which neighborhoods do you want to buy your first investment property in? Identify the best places to buy rental property. Choose carefully the area in which you would like to buy an income property. Is it attractive for tenants? Is there demand? How is the infrastructure around? Is it getting overcrowded? What are average prices? Are prices on the rise? Mashvisor can help you find the top neighborhoods and other important data you need to know before buying a rental property. Related: 5 Tips on Researching Investment Properties Once you have settled on a neighborhood, what is the average rent in this area? Again, Mashvisor can provide you with a lot of data on this. The rent that you expect to charge for your income property will be the main determinant of your profit, so you have to know the average rent for this kind of property. 2. Go to the bank. Since the very beginning, you have to think about financing the rental property which you will be buying. Paying for a rental property is equally as important as finding the right property. Thus, start arranging the financing as soon as you start looking for a potential income property. Talk with your bank about how much you can afford to buy for. This will depend on your startup capital, if any, and the expected rent for the investment property that you will end of buying. Related: Buying Investment Properties With No Money 3. Do the math. Once you have an idea about the kind of income property you want to invest in and the mortgage you can afford, do some calculations. Don’t throw yourself in real estate investing without doing the proper math first. It seems simple: cash flow equals income minus expenses. Income is the rent that you will charge your tenants for your investment property. Expenses, however, are more complicated. The most obvious one is the mortgage. Online investment property mortgage calculators can be helpful here. Then, you come to taxes. Remember that property taxes might grow exponentially. Many states offer homeowners exemptions on their primary residence, so property taxes on rental properties are significantly higher. Then, you need to include other less apparent costs such as maintenance. Just like your home, your income property will require maintenance. As soon as you become a landlord, you will start receiving phone calls from your tenants about problems with your property all the time. And you will need to fix them — for a price. The costs will vary majorly depending on whether you are good with tools and can fix most problems by yourself or you need to hire a professional. Also, don’t underestimate the damage that renters can and will do. Mashvisor provides an interactive investment analysis in which expenses and income can be entered. This is a lot faster than creating spreadsheets. Related: Investment Property Calculator for Analyzing Real Estate Investments 4. Make a plan. After you have done some research and thinking, set specific goals and make a plan. It is best to write down your goals and periodically check that you are sticking to them. If you decide to buy a simple family home for $500,000, don’t get tempted by a $600,000 house with a beautiful garden. Remember that investing in rental property is a business and should be treated as such. Be sure to make the decisions that will provide you with the most profitable income property at a price that you can afford. 5. Network. Probably the best way for a beginner real estate investor to learn is to connect with local investors. Reach out to other already established investors in the areas which you are considering. Successful investors are proud of their achievements and like to brag about them. Learn from their experiences. However, this doesn’t mean overwhelming them with questions and requests. Try to learn a few things from each investor you talk to. 6. Start shopping. Now comes the exciting part — the shopping for the actual investment property. There are many website which you can use to find listings. Mashvisor offers many in various US cities and neighborhoods. However, these sites don’t usually contain all the information you will need before making your decision. Thus, consider contacting a local real estate agent. Agents are usually paid by the seller, so you don’t have to worry about the cost. It’s important to find a real estate agent who works with investors as this person will be better aware of what makes a good real estate investment rather than a good home. Although a real estate agent can be of indispensable help, he/she can also bring unnecessary pressure to buy a property before you have found the best income property for you. 7. Make an offer. When you have found the investment property you want to go for and have clarified all necessary details, it is now time to make your offer. Your real estate agent — if you are using one — will fill out the paperwork and submit your offer to the seller. Make sure to only spend an amount that works for you. Don’t let your emotions take over. Once again, remember that this is a business decision, so the numbers have to make sense. Once you have completed these steps, you are — more or less — ready to enter the world of rental property business.

https://medium.com/mashvisor/7-steps-to-buying-a-rental-property-4149dce3cf89

['Peter Abualzolof']

2016-08-21 13:13:35.975000+00:00

['Real Estate Agent', 'Rental Property', 'Vacation Rental', 'Investing', 'Real Estate']

Technically, Bitcoin is doom to fail

Today, Bitcoin worth almost $20,000 for each. Its delicacy architecture is epoch-making inventions. I still think its price might be able to reach $100,000 or possibly even 1 million dollar. But at the same time, as a former believer of Bitcoin and blockchain, I found that it is doom to fail. Actually, all cryptocurrencies base on the power of work(PoW), which can be mined by hardware ASIC miners, are doom to fail. A 51% attack is a potential attack on a blockchain network, where a single entity or organization can control the majority of the hash rate, potentially causing network disruption. In such a scenario, the attacker would have enough mining power to intentionally exclude or modify the ordering of transactions. Cryptocurrency mining is a process in which transactions for various forms of cryptocurrency are verified and added to the blockchain digital ledger. The mining process itself involves competing with other crypto miners to solve complicated mathematical problems with cryptographic hash functions that are associated with a block containing the transaction data. By doing that, the mining process ensures the authenticity of information and updates the blockchain with the transaction. The mathematical requires a large amount of computer power to get the right answer, so miner gets rewards from the crypto network, which makes mining profitable, consequently, attract more miner to the network. In common practice, people measure the total computer power of the crypto miners by hash rate. The current bitcoin network hash rate is about 132M TH(Trillion Hash) per second. A top of the line ASIC hardware miner can run at 73 TH/s. This means to initiate a 51% attack will require 1,000,000 units of such mining devices. It sounds impossible for a single entity to control such a large amount of devices, but is it? The market price of such a miner is about 1,000 USD. Therefore, to formalize a 51% attack might require roughly 1 billion dollars. Well, you can see it’s hard, but not impossible now. Since there might be 10,000 billionaires in this world, it isn’t entirely out of risk. The problem does not end here. 1,000 USD is the market price, but not the cost of making it. Hypothetically, if I’m planing a 51% attack, it will be much cheaper just to design and manufacture the ASIC miner by my own team, possibly use a 5nm chip. Let me tell you. I might just be able to cut the cost of each miner down to 100USD each. Therefore, the cost of an attack can be lower to 100–200 million dollars, which is much more affordable. Furthermore, the price of Bitcoin fluctuates and volatile. In some extreme cases, it might drop below $3000 USD or to a certain point that mining farms will be forced to shut down miners in order to save the cost of electricity. Such an event will make a 51% attack even more feasible. One may argue that no one would spend such a fortune just to dismantle the network. But in reality, one may just get the mining rewards before he or she decides an attack. It’s one stone with two birds. Nevertheless, if someone actually has the motivation is not the point here. The very fundamental of blockchain technology is about TRUST. If there is a risk of someone may attacking the network, the fundamental advantage of blockchain will be gone. The intrinsic value to support this system will vanish in no time. Moreover, the attack can be lucrative, too. One can just short sell bitcoin before the attack, double, triple, or even tenfold the profits even if bitcoin’s price dropped to zero after the attack. And frankly, it is respective in the way of becoming the one who dismantles the largest money hoax and ponzi scam in the world. Even the cause itself may be enough reason for someone wealthy enough to do it. All the cryptocurrencies that can be mined by ASIC miners have the same problem that, at a certain point, the cost of forming a 51% attack is relatively low in comparison with the worth of cryptos. By Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can possibly go wrong, does.” It’s just a matter of time Bitcoin goes wrong. Everyone is just playing with fire now.

https://medium.com/@shensheng/technically-bitcoin-is-doom-to-fail-6656bdddfd6c

['Shen Sheng']

2020-12-08 10:05:42.038000+00:00

['Bitcoin', 'Predictions', 'Mining']

Kentico & RabbitMQ Integration: Part 2 — Inbound Integration

In my previous article I talked about how to send data out of Kentico using RabbitMQ as the message queuing server. In this article I’m going to look at how you can receive data into Kentico from an external source via a RabbitMQ message queuing server. Setup I’ll assume for the purposes of this article that you have already followed the “Setup” section in Part 1 and that the inbound messages from the third-party system that you’ll be receiving will follow the same structure and model as those that we sent in Part 1. Polling vs subscription There are two methods by which you can receive messages from a RabbitMQ server: polling and subscription. Polling Polling involves your application making a request to the RabbitMQ server to retrieve each message (or no message if none are in the queue). This can be a good way to ensure that the messages are retrieved if you need to ensure that your application controls how and when the messages are retrieved. Subscription With subscription, your application simply opens a connection to RabbitMQ and subscribes to one or more queues. The RabbitMQ server will then push new messages down to your application as and when they arrive in the queue and your application is ready to receive them. Which is better? The answer is that it really depends on your situation. If you need to control the exact timing of the message processing, then the polling method might work better for you — for example, if you only wanted to process the information at certain times of day. If you need to get the messages processed as quickly as possible then the subscription method might be a better fit since your workers will get the messages as soon as they are available. With either method, it is possible to have multiple workers to consume the messages from the queue, allowing for far more scalability. Personally, I prefer the subscription method. It takes the management of connections and timing out of your hands and lets RabbitMQ handle it, but this is only a personal preference based on my experience with RabbitMQ and the projects I have used it in. I’ll describe both methods below so that you can use the method that best suits your situation. A quick note on web farms If you use Kentico’s web farms feature, you can process messages on each server in parallel — improving performance. It should be noted though that you may need to also create web farm tasks to ensure caches are cleared or actions are taken on all web farm servers depending on the work being done. Configure polling To use polling, you will need some way of running your polling code on a schedule. Fortunately, Kentico has a great scheduled task system built-in. Create a new scheduled task class as per the Kentico documentation. Configure your task to execute every 1 minute (the shortest time interval at which they can run by default). Next (because you will now need access to the RabbitMQ channel object in both your module class and this new scheduled task) you will need to abstract your setup code out of your module’s OnInit method into a static helper method or singleton service that returns the _channel variable. It’s important that everywhere that you access the queue(s) that you use that they are configured in the same way — abstracting the code that performs the setup allows us to achieve this. Then, within the Execute() method of your custom task you will need to add some code to request one or more messages from the queue and process them. Receiving a message is as simple as this: var message = _channel.BasicGet(_queueName, false); The “Body” property on the message will contain a byte-array which is the text contents of the message. If you were receiving one of the messages sent in part 1, this would be a JSON object which you could now deserialise as follows: var messageModel = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<UserMessageModel<InsertUserModel>>(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(message.Body)); Now that you have the model decoded you can do anything you need to do with it. You could also wrap the above code in a loop to process multiple messages in each pass or use the scheduled task tips & tricks I talked about in a previous article to enhance the processing capabilities of the task. Finally, once you have completed the processing for each message you must send an acknowledgement back to the RabbitMQ server to let it know that it can release that message from the queue. Failure to do this may result in the message being delivered to you multiple times: _channel.BasicAck(message.DeliveryTag, false); It is also possible to return a “not acknowledged” response back to the server as well, to tell the server that something went wrong and that the message was not processed. _channel.BasicNack(message.DeliveryTag, false, requeue: true); The “requeue” parameter tells RabbitMQ whether the message should be requeued for another try. In places where you know the failure is permanent you should set this to false. Configure subscription To use subscription, you will need to do things a little differently. Instead of a scheduled task, you can register a consumer within your module’s OnInit method: var consumer = new EventingBasicConsumer(_channel); Next, you need to register an event handler for the “Received” event: consumer.Received += ConsumerOnReceived; Then you’ll need to write the method to handle the messages. This method will be called for each individual message that RabbitMQ delivers to your application: private void ConsumerOnReceived(object sender, BasicDeliverEventArgs message) { var messageModel = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<UserMessageModel<InsertUserModel>>(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(message.Body)); // Handle your message here // Then acknowledge the message _channel.BasicAck(message.DeliveryTag, false); } Finally, you need to register the consumer with the channel for the relevant queue: _channel.BasicConsume("queueName", autoAck: false, consumer: consumer); Now, RabbitMQ will send messages directly to your application whenever there are messages in the queue. By default, it will initially deliver 10, then as each message is acknowledged it will deliver one more to replace it. It’s worth noting that you can have your consumer automatically acknowledge the messages it receives by setting the autoAck parameter to true, however doing so can present a risk that messages that fail to process correctly are removed from the queue and lost. I find that it’s always better to manually acknowledge the messages once the process has successfully completed. Wrapping up Now that you know how to send messages to RabbitMQ and how to receive them you’re all set to create new integrations that are more scalable and can handle much larger volumes of data as well as being able to communicate out to potentially unknown external systems. In the next article I’ll take the scalability aspect of this process further and detail an architecture that can scale in multiple ways to more easily accommodate surges in usage. At Distinction, we are Kentico specialists and certified gold partners. If you are interested in working with us, get in touch today to see how we can help your business.

https://medium.com/distinctionuk/kentico-rabbitmq-integration-part-2-inbound-integration-592e550f82b2

['Lee Conlin']

2019-05-21 15:23:36.055000+00:00

['Rabbitmq', 'Kentico', 'Backend Development', 'Integration']

ICON Monthly Grant Update — April 2020

Atomic Wallet, Online Hackathon, Messari Registry, and ICON Vote Monitor Greetings ICONists, This is the second monthly grant recap report. In case you missed it, details from the first report can be found here. In the first release, we described the evaluation process in more detail, including the framework we use to make our decisions and the respective timing of each decision. Be sure to check it out! This month, we’ll leave out those details and instead take a closer look at the grants approved by the Foundation thus far in April. Additionally, we’ll highlight updates to periodic reporting and the respective progress of our previously funded grants. April 2020 It was another busy month for grants. We’ve approved 4 thus far; 2 for infrastructure, 1 for education, and the other for new service integration. And we expect to approve more in the coming days. Note, we’ll be sure to provide more details on any we miss in next month’s update. Approvals thus far: Atomic Wallet is a non-custodial wallet that provides asset management for 20+ blockchains and all ERC20 and BEP2 tokens. As part of the approval process, Atomic Wallet will integrate ICON’s native token, ICX, into its web-based and IOS/Android mobile wallets. Additionally, Atomic Wallet will provide staking and voting capabilities for ICON governance. Atomic Wallet must submit a Periodic Report by the timeframe below (UTC): 2020/06/16 02:00 AM (UTC) The Foundation is providing a total of 3 BTC worth of ICX paid in 2 installments based on the Periodic Report. The amount of ICX will be determined and paid according to the price on the day of payment. 2020/04/30 02:00 AM (UTC) — ICX of 1.5 BTC value 2020/06/25 02:00 AM (UTC) — ICX of 1.5 BTC value As part of the approval, ICON Hyperconnect will host an online ICON hackathon on the largest hackathon platform in the world, Devpost, which has access to an online base of 900K+ developers. Additionally, as part of this approval, ICON Hyperconnect will accelerate the winners and most promising projects of the hackathon by providing consulting, mentoring, marketing, and networking while also preparing for the next hackathon. ICON Hyperconnect must submit the Periodic Report by the time frames below (UTC): 2020/04/21 02:00 AM (UTC) 2020/05/21 02:00 AM (UTC) 2020/06/20 02:00 AM (UTC) The Foundation is providing $32,000 in 3 monthly installments based on the Periodic Report. The amount of ICX will be determined and paid according to the price at 02:00 AM (UTC) on the day of payment. 2020/04/26 02:00 AM (UTC) — $10,666 2020/05/26 02:00 AM (UTC) — $10,666 2020/06/25 02:00 AM (UTC) — $10,667 Messari’s Registry aims to be a single source of truth for basic cryptoasset information. Participating projects voluntarily disclose basic information about their token design, supply details, technology audits, official communication channels, and relevant team members, investors, and advisors. The Registry is the first open disclosures platform that allows projects to quickly and reliably communicate material updates to their communities and external stakeholders through a single, standardized interface. Messari validates project data and provides free access to disclosures via an open API that allows third-party services to rally around one universal cryptoasset disclosures library. As part of the approval process, ICON Project will be listed on the disclosure registry. Additionally, ICON Foundation members will participate in several community activities with Messari including: An announcement press release shared on Messari’s newsfeed & Twitter Telegram AMA in the Messari dedicated group Senior Member of ICON Foundation podcast recording with Ryan Selkis to dig into the inner workings of the project Interactive analyst calls with the Messari Research team and Icon Foundation Expo booth at our inaugural virtual event, The Mainnet The ICON Foundation is providing $10,000 to be paid in 2 installments based on the Periodic Report. The timing of payments is still being finalized. As part of the approval, Everstake is committed to building and improving the ICON Vote Monitor tool that will help track voting and all ICON accounts activity on the ICON network by daily breaks or snapshots. Its functionality will encompass: Monitoring of all ICON accounts and a feature that targets P-Reps primarily; Basic historical information about P-Reps and ICON accounts; Visualization of voting patterns and changes in ranks among all P-Reps. Track voting activity regarding P-Reps — Voting Analytics Hourly / Daily / Weekly / Monthly (how many votes they received/lost, how many voters they have/lost) Check voters of any P-Rep, their balance, voting history. Provide charts and graphs showing a historical change of votes and change in top-22 and other P-reps over time. Provides the following information about accounts: Address, total balance, P-Reps voted for (with a hash), amount of votes, voting since, previous votes with duration, vote changes Provides the following information about a P-Rep: Total votes, last updated, balance, productivity/uptime, governance votes, voters (with the amount voted) Delegates timeline for any ICON account Everstake must submit the Periodic Report by the timeframes below (UTC): 2020/05/21 02:00 AM (UTC) The Foundation is providing $6,000 based on the Periodic Report. The amount of ICX will be determined and paid according to the price at 02:00 AM (UTC) on the day of payment. 2020/05/26 02:00 AM (UTC) — $6,000 Periodic Updates The team has begun preparations for marketing, developer outreach, and organization of the hackathon. Below is an update on the progress of this initiative. Project Completion Percentage : 25% : 25% Remaining Time to Completion : 3 months : 3 months Expected Results for the Next Period: Completed hackathon website (www.iconhyperhack.com), completed promotional materials, updated ICON report, accelerated developer outreach, and marketing efforts. During the reporting period, the team managed ICON Korean community and database including: ICONkr.com Twitter Kakaotalk Telegram (Korean official community) Coinpan NAVER blog Project Completion Percentage: 100% Expected Results for the Next Period: Steadily increase the number of visitors to the ICONkr.com site. Easily explain the IISS 3.0 system. Estimated number of posts for the ICON project: ICONkr.com website = 50+ Crypto-related website(Coinpan) = 15+ ICON Naver Blog = 30+ In the past month, the FutureICX team completed most of the details concerning the overall app design, the basic functionalities, and the structure of the reward system. Below are some of the improvements made in the reporting period. UI/UX: The UX/UI team iterated on graphic charts and identities, interface, and user flows. A sample can be found below: 2. Storytelling: Introduced avatars for users. 3. Production: During this period the development team worked on 2 main tasks — we have started to integrate the platform and work on the centralized/static parts of the platform (frontend integration, backend, etc.), while at the same time we had to prepare the creation of the Smart Contract, map the planned processes, plan the SCORE structure, etc. 4. Prototype: Check out the overview here. 5. Reward structure: See below. Daily prediction — rewards distributed according to the player’s prediction accuracy for a specific day compared to the other players. Rewards 40% of the placed prediction amounts with a max multiplier of 4.5x for the most accurate players. — rewards distributed according to the player’s prediction accuracy for a specific day compared to the other players. Rewards 40% of the placed prediction amounts with a max multiplier of 4.5x for the most accurate players. Weekly prediction — an alternative to the Daily prediction option for the players that prefer to look at longer trading periods. Identical rewards with 40% rewarded with a 4.5x max multiplier — an alternative to the Daily prediction option for the players that prefer to look at longer trading periods. Identical rewards with 40% rewarded with a 4.5x max multiplier Bullseye prediction — a weekly prediction type for the more confident/daring players. Offers a steep reward system with 15% of the prediction amounts rewarded but with a strong 7x max multiplier — weekly returns that traders can rarely get even in the most powerful bull runs — a weekly prediction type for the more confident/daring players. Offers a steep reward system with 15% of the prediction amounts rewarded but with a strong 7x max multiplier — weekly returns that traders can rarely get even in the most powerful bull runs Weekly reward pool — a reward pool, distributed weekly and rewarding the top performers throughout the week — a reward pool, distributed weekly and rewarding the top performers throughout the week Monthly reward pool — a pool rewarding the top-performing players monthly DappReview has integrated ICON into its platform. Additionally, joint marketing efforts have been completed. Data integration: 2. Separate page for each ICON DApp: 3. Marketing and Articles: 4. Industry reports and other media: Include ICON in our featured 2020 Q1 Dapp Market Report 1 (will have another two quarterly reports and one annual report in 2020) ICON is ranked at 4th place in the Dapp volume ranking Next steps: The integration work for the grant application is complete. DappReview will continue to work with ICON Foundation and DApp developers closely in terms of DApp-related marketing/events to add value to the ICON ecosystem. For the future reports and research articles, ICON will be one of the main focus areas on our radar and covered in our data analysis. ICX Comics completed milestone #2. Over the past month, the ICX Comics team created 3 new comics: Project Completion Percentage: 60% Remaining Time to Completion: 4 weeks Expected Results for the Next Period: The ICX Comics team will develop several comics explaining issues like: Comic#7 — Why developers should choose ICON Network? Comic#8 — How to work with ICON Products Comic#9 — Roadmap and ICON plans Thank you, Hyperconnect the World ICON Foundation Homepage : https://icon.foundation Medium (ENG) : https://medium.com/helloiconworld Brunch (KOR) : https://brunch.co.kr/@helloiconworld KakaoTalk (KOR) : https://open.kakao.com/o/gMAFhdS Telegram (ENG) : https://t.me/hello_iconworld Telegram (KOR) : https://t.me/iconkorea Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/helloicon/ Reddit : https://www.reddit.com/r/helloicon/

https://medium.com/helloiconworld/icon-monthy-grant-update-april-2020-53e11adec524

['Icon Foundation']

2020-04-26 23:33:28.496000+00:00

['Ecosystem']

How we hire at OAK’S LAB — the guide

Firstly, Congratulations! If you’re reading this it means you have been invited for an interview with OAK’S LAB. So now you’re probably asking yourself, what’s next, what are we looking for and what have you got to look forward to? Well, we’ve got you covered, here is everything you need to know to navigate your way through the full process and be prepared for what’s next. Initial contact There’s a number of different ways you could have reached us, our recruiting channels, referrals, or other methods. However you got here, your application has been reviewed by our CTO or one of our senior engineers and landed you in Round 1 of our interview process! Not a candidate yet? Send your CV to apply@oaks-lab.com Round 1— Call & Coding interview At OAK’S, we believe that time is the most valuable resource a person can have. That’s why we are all about saving it by effectively assessing fit and ability in our CALL & CODE interviews. In the past, we used to ask candidates to implement a test task. Nothing complicated, maximum of 2 hours of their time. But this was 2 hours which proved to show experience with boilerplates, instead of developer quality. Our CALL & CODE interviews take the form of a remote live coding video interview that allows flexibility for you to get to know us and for us to find out a bit more about you and how you code. This interview has 3parts: 5 minutes about OAK’S LAB 10 minutes chat about your past, present& future, questions, etc. 20–40 minutes live coding with https://coderpad.io We ask simple programming questions connected to development basics, we usually don’t ask questions related to any specific technology just yet (e.g. React). Imagine you're developing a statistics system for an athletic federation. You're processing results from a race in following format: "01|15|59, 1|47|6, 01|17|20, 1|32|34, 2|3|17" These are 5 racers and their race time as HH|MM|SS Your task is to parse the input, calculate maximum/minimum and average time. You can choose any programming language supported by codepad.io but on our side…we are fans of JavaScript. During the live coding, you’ll be expected to ask questions about implementation details, explain your thought process and write bug-free code. When or if you get stuck, it’s actually a positive to ask your interviewer rather than struggle alone. There are a bunch of sources available on how to prepare for a coding interview, we like this one https://github.com/yangshun/tech-interview-handbook/tree/master/preparing. Success rate: 20% Round 2 — The on-site interview A second congratulations getting here, the second round, this is a culture fit interview with our COO and co-founder Theo. It will take place in our HQ in the center of Prague where you’ll get a chance to glimpse into our office, take in the atmosphere, get to know us better and for us to see if you are the right personality fit. Our office is right in the Old Town Square (If you’re on the other side of the planet, we’ll opt to have a video call instead) Success rate: Around 40% Round 3 — The TSG interview Congratulations for the third time, you passed the first two rounds, now it’s time for the “final boss” level. You will have a video call with our Tech Steering Group, our most senior engineers that set the tech strategy at the company. You can expect 3–5 people on the call, and maybe a familiar face depending on their availability. With the TSG you can expect deeper technical questions based on your previous experience. Are you a React guru? Expect in-depth React questions. Success Rate: Around 30% Alternative A — The rejection We shoot for the stars and for that we only work with the best of the best. People who join our team not only show us high-level coding ability but also are a great addition to our team and culture. Of course, this may mean we sometimes reject talent that may not be ready. If you were rejected in the process, ask us for feedback and you’ll be more welcome to apply again in 6–12 months. Alternative B— The onboarding If you passed all the rounds, then CONGRATULATIONS and welcome to the OAK’S LAB FAM. Theo will be following up with our offer. Once we agree on the terms Carry, our People Ops, will send over the contract for you to sign and we can get going with the first week of onboarding and integrating you on to a killer project.

https://medium.com/the-cache/how-we-hire-at-oaks-lab-the-guide-12f32f9b3505

['Karol Danko']

2019-08-13 06:52:41.421000+00:00

['Hiring', 'Prague', 'Startup', 'Interview', 'Coding Interviews']

Does Pegging Make You Gay?

Modern Sex Does Pegging Make You Gay? Demystifying butt sex for the heterosexuals who still struggle to understand. Pegging is a sexual position involving a woman wearing a dildo strapped around her waist and penetrating the butt hole of a man in the doggy-style position. Pegging is quite unorthodox and its practice is not popularly understood. One can have progressive conversations about sex, but still be skeptical about its progressive practice. Understanding ourselves, our bodies, and our partners, is key to narrowing down how we choose to explore in the bedroom. The 21st century has brought about sexual freedom and led to progressive conversations around sex. The very nature of sex is now open to more interpretation, and intimacy is now fostered by healthy and consensual exploration between partners. So, let’s take a trip down the male G-spot to explore gay sex and pegging. The male G-spot is a sensitive, walnut-sized gland in the prostrate, behind the penis, and it contains tons of nerve endings, making it a perfect target for mind-blowing orgasms. Laurie Mintz, Ph.D., author of Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters — and How to Get It, explains in her book, which popularized the female G-spot, that the clitoris is to the penis what the G-spot is to the prostate. Fran Walfish, PsyD, a Beverly Hills-based family and relationship psychotherapist, explains that the male prostate contains many sensitive nerve endings that can provide intense pleasure and climax. This goes to show that, just like the female G-spot, the male prostate is capable of mind-blowing, next-level orgasms if stimulated carefully and properly. According to a 2011 study of 25,000 men who have sex with men published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, less than 40 percent of respondents reported engaging in anal sex with their last sexual partner. The hasty assumption that anal sex is what defines homosexuality in men, needs to change. Mutual masturbation and oral sex are also popular among gay men. Having anal sex doesn’t necessarily make you gay. Being gay is more a result of who you choose to love, rather than what sexual fantasy you’re interested in. Gay partners have sex almost the same way we all have sex, which is, the way we like it, how open we are to exploration and the level of consent between us and our partner. Anal sex is the most universal sex there is. We all can practice and enjoy butt sex if and when we choose to. Yet, there are so many misconceptions about butt sex out there. So many people like to highlight the ‘ew’ factor when it comes to anal sex, and they almost always tend to forget that our beautiful butts can be cleaned and there are easy ways to do it. Alicia Sinclair, CEO of luxury Sex Tech brands Le Wand, b-Vibe, and The Cowgirl, put it well in an interview she did with Bustle: One of the great things about anal play is that folks of any gender and orientation can enjoy it, not just gay men (obviously). The sensations and experiences that feel good to you have nothing to do with your sexual orientation or gender. It’s kind of like how the food that you enjoy is a totally different question than who you want to have dinner with. Religion and society continue to intensify the already magnified ignorance. Sometimes they foster outright hate by ‘sodomizing’ everything progressive about sex and our bodies. Other times, it could be subtle, like convincing the vast majority of us, for no reason, to see anything open-minded about sex and our bodies as ‘dirty acts’. Society will keep getting it wrong and missing out on wonderful sexual experiences because it cares more about labeling others for their differences rather than understanding more about its naturally flawed state. Sexual fulfillment will keep being placed on a scale of moral superiority over others, instead of on true self-awareness and enlightenment. Though being gay might open you up to practicing pegging and anal sex more than the average heterosexual, the practice of pegging is still no indicator to anyone’s same-sex status. The practice of progressive sex acts — like pegging — not only gives you the opportunity to enjoy more pleasure but also sensitizes you on what your lady might enjoy. According to a 2012 study published in the journal Sex Roles, clinging to traditional gender roles could make us feel less comfortable between the sheets. Dr. Charlie Glickman, a sexuality educator, found out that straight men who had tried pegging were more in tune with what their female partner needed from them during penetration. Myths seem to be the mediocre conclusions about sex these days. Every mediocre wants to have an opinion about things they have never tried and so fall prey to myths. Being gay is a myth a lot of heterosexuals still struggle to understand. Pegging is no different, and wrong assumptions will always be made about its practice. The key here is understanding who you are, what you enjoy, what is factual, and how much you value your sexual pleasure. Modern Sex is a new column with a focus on the ever-evolving modern landscape of sex. We want to offer a place where we can see sex and sexuality develop. Read more from Modern Sex here.

https://medium.com/sexography/does-pegging-make-you-gay-d937f049dfb1

['Stephen Uba']

2020-05-21 09:15:08.368000+00:00

['Relationships', 'Sexuality', 'Sex', 'Self', 'Men']

The importance of self-talk

What’s the first thing you tell yourself when you wake up in the morning? I’m not talking about the first thing you say out loud, but what is the first voice you hear inside your head? Do they say “heck yeah, I’m so excited to start my day!” or “oh, no, morning again…”? “selective focus photography of man's reflection on a broken mirror” by Fares Hamouche on Unsplash “Identify demeaning self-talk and rewrite it” If your answer is anything within the lines of “shit, fuck, damn, oh shut up!, not again…” I hear you. And you can train your brain to welcome you in the mornings with something like “sun’s bright today, smile gorgeous, what a great night!, mhhh good morning…” and others. We are a bunch of habits put together and that’s our life. You pick your habits and that’s you and your everyday. I know, it sounds sad, but it’s actually pretty amazing. Because that means that you can change your life by changing tiny little habits like brushing your teeth once more every day, quitting a bad habit like smoking (says while lighting one) or by telling yourself nice things more often. Edited by Regina Carbonell Today I will only teach you ONE exercise that you need to practice over the next 21 days. If you fail one day it’s alright. Just start over your 21 days. Every time you tell yourself something cruel or negative, you need to repeat yourself a positive counterpart. Find some examples of my own: Clumsy bastard: no I am not clumsy, I was not paying attention. Pay more attention and you’ll do better. Pay more attention and you’ll do better. Pay more attention and you’ll do better. I’m so fucking stupid: no I am not stupid. I am clever. I just made a mistake. I am not stupid, I am clever. I just made a mistake. I am not stupid, I am clever. I just made I mistake. I’m a fucktard//I’m too clumsy//feel overwhelmed by “silliness” feeling: I forgive myself for not being perfect. I am awesome as I am, clumsy and all. I forgive myself for not being perfect. I am awesome as I am, even when I don’t know better. I forgive myself for not being perfect. I’m fucking ducking awesome pawsome as I am. Being clumsy, silly and accepting my mistakes is part of me being amazing. We all feel stupid, wrong and a bit crazy sometimes. Being your weird self is part of being awesome. Don’t lose yourself on being average. Remind yourself daily how much you love yourself. That you are allowed to be wrong and make mistakes in order to grow and that the people that loves you are humans too therefore, flaws. I love you loads, and so should you.

https://medium.com/join-the-gender-revolution/the-importance-of-self-talk-d25d5db9a9d8

['Regina Carbonell']

2018-11-11 21:08:45.708000+00:00

['Life Lessons', 'LGBTQ', 'Mindset', 'Self Improvement', 'Love Yourself']

Daily Bit #173: Learning the Ropes

Word on the Street Learning the Ropes Happy Friday Folks! When I asked yesterday if everyone was still having a good time, I meant it. Trading in these markets is akin to braving the high seas in a dinghy. There’s a strong chance of getting knocked around if you float in place for too long. In light of the recent volatility, I figured that now is an appropriate time to share two questions from an interview that we conducted with Niffler.co. They’re 9 days out from launching their platform, which essentially lets users trade the crypto markets with monopoly money. In other words — risk free. Now, there are pros and cons to trading with zero risk And it has to do with having skin in the game. Folks are less inclined to take things seriously without a risk of getting bit on the butt should things go south. The practice is brought up several times in Market Wizards. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in learning how some characters made it big in the traditional trading world. There’s a mild difference between traditional markets and crypto: volatility is a regular son of a nutcracker. Plus, each wave of newcomers typically goes in blind and has a high chance of losing a lot of money. New traders can also land on the other side of the spectrum, though that depends upon the market cycle (and luck). More importantly, growing an equity stack isn’t impossible. The real pain is preserving it. People that’ve been around the block more than twice or thrice generally apply better risk management strategies than newcomers, who are more inclined to treat trading like a hobby (this is no bueno FYI). This turned into a bit of a rant… but hey it’s Friyay. There are several free resources in today’s other reads that I believe are bomb.com as far as getting your feet wet goes. I think that Niffler is worth looking into if you’re debating an entry into the markets. Whatever floats your (raggedy) boat. What are some of the pain points that Niffler.co is looking to solve for cryptocurrency enthusiasts? In terms of newbies, we would say the number one pain point we solve is removing the fear of not understanding the fundamentals of trading and losing their real life or actual money or capital by making poor decisions on a real world exchange. When it comes to more experienced enthusiasts or traders, we wanted to give them a home where they could earn money, grow their follower base, their brands by sharing their experience, knowledge and trading actions to a group of people sorely looking for it. We noticed after countless conversations with experienced traders who may currently use Patreon or Telegram, or perhaps even their own website, the experience was first and foremost theoretical only and not hands on, we really wanted to change that with our simulated exchange. With Niffler.co these experienced traders, influencers have a home where they can now share their live trading actions, TA’s, YouTube videos, links and so much more within their public or closed group feed and earn monthly ongoing pledges for helping newbies learn. We have built upon what Patreon has done for artists, musicians etc and really focused on that experience being more in line with cryptocurrencies and crypto trading. How does Niffler.co’s platform help prepare investors to put “skin in the game”? Do you think there are any downsides to paper trading? Great question….Niffler.co is a simulated crypto-trading platform designed to help people learn how to trade cryptocurrencies without the risk. We achieve this by giving our registered users $100k in play money to trade with and once they’ve proven themselves through something we call “Proof of Experience” they can achieve “trader” status”. At this point, they can also start earning money helping teach others. We like to think of it as Coinbase meets Patreon…without the risk! We don’t have anything against paper trading as it works for some, and not for others, however, we wanted to approach blockchain, crypto and cryptocurrency trading education from a tech perspective by giving our users a robust hands on experience through a real life and real time simulated crypto exchange. We believe there is simply no safer and easier way to learn than rewards based gamification that is hands on and real time.

https://medium.com/the-daily-bit/daily-bit-173-learning-the-ropes-31437eb1f098

['Daily Bit']

2018-09-07 18:17:26.708000+00:00

['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Trading', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain Technology']

Thank You

She was the mirror I never knew I needed, The reflection of a stranger standing there in need, A sign made of cardboard in her cold, brittle hands, Saying, “Please, Anything Will Help”. People walk by, drive by, pass by without a glance at the woman on the corner. No one sees her, looks at her, cares to take the time. They ignore her silent pleas, They cant see what I see. I see heaven’s gift, a woman whole Pleading to respect her soul Needing help, “Hello!” will do A simple gift of kindness due And so I offer up a word A simple act of courage My hand, a gift of trust To smile is a must She stands there chilled to the bone And obviously quite alone But when she saw me smile Her face lit up with hope I hand her my hand with a bill inside She takes it with grace and a smile on her face And two words quietly slip from her lips, “Thank you.”

https://medium.com/scribe/thank-you-8e2d23d3cdd3

['Sarah E Sturgis']

2020-12-25 18:37:21.386000+00:00

['Kindness', 'Writing', 'Thank You', 'Homelessness', 'Poetry']

New Board Game Design Contest at The Game Crafter — Solo Duo Challenge

Solo Duo Challenge at The Game Crafter We’re excited to be partnering with the Board Game Design Lab for the Solo Duo challenge, where you need to make a game that plays with 1 or 2 players. Start making your own board game today at https://www.thegamecrafter.com/start.

https://medium.com/the-game-crafter/new-board-game-design-contest-at-the-game-crafter-solo-duo-challenge-e974b5c47071

['Tavis Parker']

2020-12-21 18:18:59.326000+00:00

['Board Game Design', 'Game Designer', 'Game Design', 'Board Games', 'Game Development']

Time to use IT for achieving equality in education

Time to use IT for achieving equality in education Since the old days, education has provided momentum for development on two levels; the societal level and the individual level. While nurturing outstanding individuals so that they can contribute to society, education has also played a main part in rearing a social ladder that enables those from underprivileged backgrounds to climb up. However, due to a growing economic gap, the faith in education’s role of providing class mobility is increasingly being considered a mere “mythology” these days. Globally, it is being proven by multiple statistics that the economic disparity between countries or regions ultimately leads to the gap in educational achievement. For instance, as of 2014, over 70 per cent of the global out-of-school population in primary and secondary education were from sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.[ii] What about the domestic situation within states? The only difference with the educational inequality on a global scale is that the income gap of families instead of countries brings on difference in education. In fact, the notion that the privileged are prone to get better and higher level of education is being solidified as de facto idee recue in every country. In all countries with data, children from the richest 20 per cent of households achieved greater proficiency in reading at the end of their primary and lower secondary education than children from the poorest 20 per cent of households, and in most countries with data, urban children scored higher in reading than rural children.[iii] Where did it go wrong? It differs by the wealth of each country. For developing countries, the shortage of skilled teachers and school facilities are to blame. The situation in sub-Saharan Africa directly shows this; sub-Saharan Africa, which, as above mentioned, is suffering from extremely high rate of out-of- school youths, has relatively low percentages of trained teachers in pre-primary, primary and secondary education (44 per cent, 74 per cent and 55 per cent respectively), while the majority of schools in the region do not have access to electricity or potable water.[iv] For developed countries, disadvantaged family backgrounds should be held liable. Even with skilled teachers and excellent facilities, children still need an opportunity to exercise what they have learned at school so that they can fully assimilate. In this aspect, parental backgrounds can have a huge impact on children’s accomplishment (see Pierre Bourdieu & Jean-Claude Passeron, Les héritiers: les étudiants et la culture (1964)). What is fortunate is that there is a common solution that can solve both problems at the same time; internet. Thus, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the solution which South Korea has adopted. In South Korea, there is a special television and radio network only for the educational purpose called “EBS” (acronym for Korea Educational Broadcasting System). EBS strives to supplement school education and promote lifelong education for anyone who yearns to learn. Fig. 1 EBS Logo But what makes EBS distinguished from other countries’ educational television networks is its effective utilisation of internet; EBS provides internet lectures on all levels of education, from primary to high school. EBS provides not only one-way lectures, but also a platform for interactive learning. If students leave any questions on a Q&A bulletin board, lecturers answer them as soon as possible. Also, each and every affiliate service of EBS is specialised for its target group. For example, in case of EBS Primary, not only students but their parents can also consult with teachers. Moreover, as EBS provides differentiated education, every student from low to high achievement can be the beneficiaries. But above all, EBSi, the service for high school students, is the most popular. Figure 2 Ebooks provided by EBS EBSi covers every single subject that students can learn in high school curriculum, including but not limited to Korean language, Korean history, mathematics, English, nine social sciences subjects, four sciences subjects, and nine second foreign language courses. Students have a wide range of selection as EBSi hires many skilled teachers from high schools or for-profit private academies. Indeed, a lot of students are taking advantage of EBSi. Especially for those who live in isolated regions, or for those who cannot afford private lectures, EBSi can be their saviours. Figure 3 One of the English lectures provided by EBSi played on iPad Some might say that the EBSi-model lacks universal applicability because it requires high speed internet. True, EBSi has been successful thanks to the wide-spread internet network of South Korea with the fastest internet speed in the world as of 2015[v] and the highest rate of internet use per inhabitant as of 2015.[vi] However, what should be taken into account is that EBSi launched its service no less than 15 years ago in 2004, when less than 70 per cent of Korean households possessed internet accessible electronic devices.[vii] To put it bluntly, the current situation in the poorest parts of the globe is not much different from the internet situation of South Korea in 2004. According to the data from 65 developing countries, the average percentage of schools with access to computers and internet for teaching purposes is above 60 per cent in both primary and secondary education.[viii] Of course, there is a huge difference between having a computer at home and at school, but still, I assume that it will be much easier and more efficient to install internet networks than training teachers and building new facilities. Still, even if every household around the world has a computer, what is the point if lectures are provided at a high cost? In case of South Korea, the budget for EBS is comprised of money from various sources, but most of them are from the government.[ix] In fact, the easiest way to finance the necessary budget is to draw taxes; for example, there is a unique tax named “education tax” in South Korea. It was first introduced in 1958 in order to raise funds required for education, and the reason why it has not roused taxpayers’ antipathy until now is because it takes the form of indirect tax.[x] It is hard for people to realise that they are paying “education tax.” I think this can set a good precedent. However, some countries can still find it hard to meet the demands of students as they have to hire teachers for various subjects. This is the part where higher education plays a role. In South Korea, all the students affiliated to College of Education shall have four credits or more of practice teaching in order to graduate.[xi] Four credits are equivalent to approximately four weeks of real teaching experience. For four weeks, these students, as preservice teachers, have opportunities to actually teach real students on the front lines. Then what if we let these students of College of Education film their lectures for mandated time and recognise their credits? If conventional Open Course Ware (OCW) classes are provided by professors, this can be referred to as students- made OCWs. Of course, I cannot say that my solution is perfect. In fact, South Korea also suffers from educational inequality despite all these efforts. But I venture to say that without the help of information technology, the situation could have been much worse. Thus, it is my belief that with the help of internet, mankind can take a step forward in its long-running strenuous effort to achieve educational equality, both on international and interfamilial level. “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating.” Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating.” Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.[xii] In the midst of the wave of neoliberalism, deteriorating educational equality might seem inevitable, but the 21st century is also the age of information technology. It is time to make the most out of modern civilisation to achieve equality in education.

https://medium.com/asefedu/time-to-use-it-for-achieving-equality-in-education-a468afc0d192

['Asefedu', 'Editor']

2019-07-22 07:16:08.290000+00:00

['Sustainable Development', 'Technology', 'Sdgs', 'Arc']

Innovation Starts with People

“You manage things, you lead people.” - RDML Grace Hopper, US Navy I am reminded of the above quote when I think of my onboarding at Spatial Networks, a little over two years ago. That event was the culmination of a process in which I learned a lot about myself and what I had previously thought was important. But first, a story… About a decade ago, while I was still with my previous company, I was staffing a booth at a local job fair, where we were looking for software developers and other technical staff. This was shortly after the onset of the Great Recession. We weren’t having a lot of luck finding programmers, but there were a lot of senior program managers who were looking for work — so many that it caught my attention. One particular exchange, which I will paraphrase, was telling. Candidate: Do you need any program or project managers? Me: I’m sorry, we’re really looking for software developers. C: I used to program, but I haven’t done that for 20 years, since I went into management. Me: Well, there are a lot of companies here, maybe you’ll find something with one of them. C: I’ve already been to all of them and no one has anything. I was retired for the last five years and my retirement fund just disappeared. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I was creeping into early middle-age, but I was still deeply involved in programming and that exchange left me with what became my mantra for most of the next decade: Never stop coding. Fast forward to a few years ago, when I decided it was time for a change. There was a lot of activity in the geospatial job market, with a lot of companies doing innovative things. As a small business owner, I felt like I was what is referred to in consulting as a “triple threat” — I could get the work (business development), I could run the work (management), and I could do the work (programming). So, I started putting out feelers across the network I had built by circulating in the geospatial industry and through social media. Because I had maintained my technical capability, many of my contacts held technical roles in their companies. They forwarded me into the hiring apparatus of their organizations. It had been over fifteen years since I had looked for a job. The first couple of meetings were what could be charitably called “rusty.” I learned and adjusted. Eventually, I met with recruiters from a couple of companies that were considered innovators in the geospatial market. In this setting, I found that being a “triple threat” led to confusion. I was dealing with people who were being told to fill specific boxes and I didn’t fit neatly into any one of them. Of course, I had a number of people in my network who were senior leaders. Most didn’t have an opening they felt was appropriate. One of those leaders, Spatial Networks CEO Tony Quartararo, also didn’t have an opening at the time, but he still wanted to meet and learn about my goals and what kind of role I was seeking. This was the beginning of a fairly long-running, sporadic series of conversations. We both had parameters that didn’t necessarily mesh when an opportunity arose, but it was “no harm, no foul.” At all times, our conversations were based on respect and professionalism. As a small business owner, Tony seemed to have a good understanding of the way my career had evolved and I always got the sense that he was thinking about how to craft a role that made sense. During this time, I had also sent my information to the industry’s 800-lb gorilla. People I knew there told me the process was moving, but that it moved very slowly. Nothing was really happening and I was beginning to question the merits of my decade-old mantra and my self-perceived “triple threat” status. Had I become a generalist? Should I have pushed all-in on one of those three disciplines? Eventually, I got a call from Tony with a concept for a technical leadership position. The concept he outlined was very much in line with what I was seeking. He had moved from some of his parameters, so it was time for me to shift some of mine, which I did. We came to an agreement and I joined Spatial Networks. I came into an extremely talented technical team full of people whose work I had admired for years. They certainly didn’t need me telling them how to write code. I also found an organization that was in growth mode and needed to transition from ad-hoc approaches to more formalized processes that could scale. I found a lane that skewed more toward leadership and I have been in that lane ever since. Over the last two years, as the company has grown and our leadership team has expanded, I have watched Tony take a similar approach with others that he took with me. That includes not only outside hires, but people who have been on staff for years. In the spirit of leadership articulated by RDML Hopper, Tony leads people to place where he sees them being their best and he expects all of us in leadership roles to do the same for those on our teams. There is a lot of technical innovation happening at Spatial Networks right now, but none of that would be possible without the culture of innovation regarding people that exists within the company. Innovation is about seeing possibility and then making that possibility real. The culture at Spatial Networks encourages us to see the possibility in each other and work to make it real. As a result, technical innovation is almost a natural byproduct. To be sure, the environment is challenging and not for everyone, but, if you are willing to be honest with yourself and those around you, there is little you can’t accomplish here.

https://blog.spatialnetworks.com/innovation-starts-with-people-4c8e1cee274c

['Bill Dollins']

2019-05-14 13:03:34.733000+00:00

['Leadership', 'GIS', 'Software Development', 'Startup', 'Geospatial']

I Miss The World

POETRY CHALLENGE I Miss The World Photo by Kitera Dent on Unsplash Late last night I put some thoughts out to dry A few damp words that leaked onto the page, nothing of importance This morning they were gone, nowhere to be found I peeked out from my cave listless eyes searching- I miss the world

https://medium.com/a-cornered-gurl/i-miss-the-world-850192dbb3f3

['Dr. Jackie Greenwood']

2020-12-24 22:33:00.307000+00:00

['Quadrille', 'Challenge', 'Writing', 'Covid 19', 'Poetry']

Portrait of a Miscarriage

for Lily 1994 They can never seem to stay in the picture the way dead people do forever — Mama at the picnic table, sturdy in her housedress, surrounded by her daughters in their 1950s finest, and me — a serious preschooler, balanced ably on the bench My childhood friend Leslie — with her Roman nose, that pale white skin, and her prankish smile as she twirls a blade of grass between her slender fingers Aunt Gert, tall and trim, with her bright blonde-do and her cat rimmed glasses, smiling broadly for the camera Dear Old Dad, with his birthday crown, raising his glass to the New Year! My brother Joshua, wearing his Dead Horse Inn tee-shirt with a shit-eating-grin in a cloud of smoke — the doobie just out of the frame Me pregnant, then not Unapologetically, our children slip off — moving stealthily from our photographs — their fine hair electric with each determined step

https://lisekunkel.medium.com/portrait-of-a-miscarriage-f757aea29f29

['Lise Kunkel']

2020-04-04 17:49:02.382000+00:00

['Grief', 'Miscarriage', 'Poets Unlimited', 'Loss', 'Poem']

If there’s a moral law, then, there’s a moral law giver.

If there’s a moral law, then, there’s a moral law giver. If there’s a building, then there’s a builder- an architect. If there’s a sculpture, then there’s sculptor. Ultimately, if there’s a creation, then there’s a creator. The complexity of the universe alone is a proof of the existence of a creator- the Grand Architect of the Universe. Hell and Heaven are considered by atheists, nihilists, pantheists, and the likes as superstition. If science or reasoning can’t prove its existence, they say: “it’s nonexistent”. But most of us have experience the supernatural; diabolic/demonic manifestations, attacks and torments. Most have seen lives saved through exorcism. Some, inexplicable events:miracles. Science and reasoning can’t explain these, yet they’re there. What’s science’s explanation for emotions? Was that as a result of evolution? Of a truth, the god of this world has blinded us (2 cor. 4:4). There’s only one way to salvation, and that’s Jesus. The closer you get to him, the more you understand. A skeptic would ask: “if there’s a God, why suffering and pain? Why poverty and scarcity? Why is the world falling apart?” The world is in its fallen state. Therefore, we’re in a transition. Disobedience is the root cause.

https://medium.com/@versatilevick22/if-theres-a-moral-law-then-there-s-a-moral-law-giver-34806b16e187

['Jumbo Victor Aaron']

2021-03-01 04:15:56.431000+00:00

['God']

Job Posting boosted for Google Cloud Platform.

Google Cloud Platform The share of job postings in that time period increased for AWS by 232.06 percent and Azure by 302.47 percent, while Google Cloud saw the biggest jump at 1,337.05 percent. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of job postings for AWS climbed 21.07 percent, Azure by 30.59 percent and Google Cloud by 40.87 percent.”

https://medium.com/@dridhon/job-posting-boosted-for-google-cloud-platform-fa4ae554f0bf

[]

2020-12-24 05:27:42.700000+00:00

['Computer Science', 'AWS', 'Technology', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Azure']

5 Ways to Rethink Stress

1. ‘I Can’t Do It’ or ‘It’s Too Much’ = I’m Ready to Try Rather than thinking of stress as an enemy or an obstacle stopping you from achieving your goals, try thinking of it as a source of energy prepping your body to perform at its prime. Utilise. rather than accelerate, the physical changes. If you do any physical activity, even if it’s just walking up the stairs, your heart starts beating a little faster. Do we fear it? do we panic about this physical change? do we see it as a sign that we aren’t going to get to the top? No, we just accept it as a natural bodily reaction, that energises us to do what we need to do. The same goes for stress; our heart beats a little faster so we’re ready for action. 2. ‘It’s Too Hard’ = The Challenge Makes It Worth It Think of something you’re proud of. If it wasn’t hard to get, would it have the same value to you? Would it be as memorable, mean as much to you, or have the same associations attached to it? The challenge makes the achievement worth it because it’s a reflection of your desire and ambition. You had to really want it to put in the hard work to achieve it. And the challenge sparked the lessons you learnt, and character developed that happened along the way; it pushed you out of your comfort zone and taught you to grow and evolve. A challenge is a good thing and, even if it seems impossible now, there’s so much to be gained from pushing through. 3. ‘There’s So Much I Need to Do’ or ‘I won’t get it done’= Enjoy the Flow of Energy Eckhart Tolle wrote in his famous book, The Power of Now, that stress is an internal ‘split’ between being ‘here’, in the present, and wanting to be ‘there’, in the future. He sees the key to reframing stress as entering and enjoying the tasks at hand for want they are, rather than viewing them as solely a means for getting ‘there’: ‘If you have to, you can move fast, work fast, or even run, without projecting yourself into the future and without resisting the present. As you move, work, run — do it totally. Enjoy the flow of energy, the high energy of that moment. You are no longer stressed, no longer splitting yourself in two. Just moving, running, working — and enjoying it.’ Enjoy the flow of energy and the buzz of life as you go about your tasks; embrace the things you ‘get’ to do rather than ‘have to do’. Resist emphasizing the finished product or goals to meet — if you’re embracing each step and focusing your energy that way, the fruit of your work will come by itself. 4. ‘I’m Going to Fail’ = You’ve Done It Before and You’ll Do It Again You’ve likely thought you were going to fail before, but you’re still here, aren’t you? And you’re still reading articles like these which shows you’ve not given up on trying. You’ve done hard things before, and you’ll do hard things again. You’ve achieved things before, and you’ll achieve things again. Take the energy from the stress you feel, and redirect it from thoughts of failure to your achievements and the feeling of success. Things may not pan out the way you thought they would, plans may change, and the goal may look different to how you first envisioned it — but hang on to these thoughts of success and face the task with the determination it will succeed. 5. ‘I Feel Sick’ or ‘I can’t sleep’ or ‘I can’t eat’ = Nothing is that Important Is anything, and I mean anything, important enough to get physically ill over? Maybe you require some stress to act, to correct yourself, to learn something new, or to do the task that needs to be done. But if you're crossing a threshold where it’s making you feel physically sick or it's interfering with your health in any way, then you won’t even be able to do any of things, or at least not the extent you would have in a calmer mind. So no, nothing is important enough to sacrifice your health. Not a single thing is as important as your health because, at the end of the day, you need your health to do anything else.

https://medium.com/curious/5-ways-to-rethink-stress-7500c9545ac

['Heather Grant']

2020-12-20 23:48:43.294000+00:00

['Self Improvement', 'Stress Management', 'Work Life Balance', 'Stress', 'Rethink']

Will You Just Fix Yourself Already!

A Tiny Moment of “Watching the Grass Grow” Photo by Bradley Brister on Unsplash The Moment This is my second run of growing grass. The second seeding and it will not grow. I have yelled at it. I have used various combinations of growth supplements. I have watered FOREVER. Nothing. Maybe a few little sprigs. Like us all, I want what I want and I want it now. I read the instructions. I followed the directions. If I followed all the rules, why am I not getting results immediately and in spades? Ah, so there is a lesson in all things? The universe doesn’t care about your relationship with your lawn. Or does it? The Reflection We are one with everything and everything is one with us. As much as we want people to behave this way, we don’t. We look at things in terms of being transactional. If you do something for me, I’ll do something for you. We want something to become something the instant the idea hits. I’m pretty certain it doesn’t work like that, unfortunately. Watching my grass trying to grow, I can feel my telekinetic powers trying to push the fescue higher and higher. Sadly, no telekinetic powers. Yet. In the end, I have to watch the grass grow. Those are the rules. If I don’t enjoy the process, I’m doomed or at least mildly disappointed. A thought begins a process. If you focus solely on the want, you may fall short. Determination and effort are not the same as being willful. Having or showing a stubborn and determined intention to do as one wants, regardless of the consequences or effects, “will” catch up to you and prevent you from being your best self. You do not need to be fixed. You aren’t broken. Try and enjoy the process. The Takeaway If you focus too much on the result, you lose the process. If you don't enjoy the process, time to find a new process. Patience is a process. We all grow in our unique fashion. Josh Kiev is an actor, chef, and his mutant powers are human connection.

https://medium.com/tiny-life-moments/will-you-just-fix-yourself-already-d6dee27e4faf

['Josh Kiev']

2020-10-24 20:15:18.349000+00:00

['Will', 'Tiny Life Moments', 'Process', 'Self Love', 'Philosophy']

JavaScript Algorithms: Meeting Rooms (LeetCode)

Description Given an array of meeting time intervals where intervals[i] = [starti, endi] , determine if a person could attend all meetings. Example 1: Input: intervals = [[0,30],[5,10],[15,20]] Output: false Example 2: Input: intervals = [[7,10],[2,4]] Output: true Constraints: 0 <= intervals.length <= 104 intervals[i].length == 2 0 <= starti < endi <= 106 Solution I came up with a brute force solution when I had seen this question the first time. We can go through the intervals array and create a Set with all busy minutes. And if we see a minute that is already in Set we’re going to return false , otherwise return true . Let’s look at examples: Let’s try to implement it

https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/javascript-algorithms-meeting-rooms-leetcode-2385465b92f0

['Anatolii Kurochkin']

2020-11-29 18:59:20.113000+00:00

['Leetcode', 'Data Structures', 'Algorithms', 'JavaScript', 'Web Development']

Creating a standing LED light with Home Assistant and NodeMCU — Part 3

In the previous parts we created the entire light. Now all that’s left is group to all the lights together and use an Ikea remote control to turn them on/off. This part assumes you have a basic understanding of Home Assistant, Node-RED and Zigbee. If you haven’t used Node-RED before, here is a good getting started guide. For Zigbee, if you haven’t set it up yet, follow the steps on the HA website. In terminal on your Hassio device (I’m using a Raspberry Pi 3B+), you can use the following command to detect your Zigbee stick (as you will need its path in the steps). Look at the list to find you radio type. ls -l /dev/ttyU* The stick I’m using is HUSBZB-1. Grouping the lights This step is very straightforward, grouping is already a part of Home Assistant. So go ahead to the file editor of your choice (I use this one). If you don’t already have a lights.yaml file, create one in the same directory of your configuration.yaml file. Open configuration.yaml and add the following line (if you haven’t already). light: !include lights.yaml In lights.yaml paste the following - platform: group name: Standing lights entities: - light.led_standing_light_1 - light.led_standing_light_2 - light.led_standing_light_3 - light.led_standing_light_4 Replace the entities your LEDs. Go to Configuration > Server Controls. Press the Check configuration button to make sure everything is set up correctly. At the bottom of the page, restart Home Assistant to make sure everything is loaded properly after rebooting. Pairing the Ikea remote The remote I’m using is the round 5 button one. © Ikea If you have used the Ikea Tradfri Gateway before then you probably already know how to pair devices. First off, if you have used the remote before make sure to remove it from the gateway using the Ikea app. Open the back of the button to reveal the battery and a button inside. In Home Assistant go to Configuration > Zigbee Home Automation > Add Devices. It will now start searching for new devices. Hold the button no further than 2cm away from the Zigbee stick. Now press the button inside the remote 4 times. Wait a bit and you should see logs coming through in Home Assistant. After a few seconds a popup will ask you to name the device, you’re done pairing! Using the remote in Node-RED Head over to Node-RED. The first thing we want is to be able to listen for Zigbee events. Create a new workflow and add an events: all node. Set the event type to: zha_event Or import the following (remember to fix your Server) [{"id":"7c05f341.3b617c","type":"server-events","z":"b16c9e0.0dfa16","name":"","server":"edecb673.6d66a8","event_type":"zha_event","exposeToHomeAssistant":false,"haConfig":[{"property":"name","value":""},{"property":"icon","value":""}],"x":130,"y":100,"wires":[["1e22dac1.7ed685"]]},{"id":"edecb673.6d66a8","type":"server","z":"","name":"Home Assistant"}] Now link a debug node to the output of that node. Set the debug node’s Output to ‘msg.payload.event’. Publish the workflow. Wait for the event node to say ‘connected’, then press Ikea button. Look at the debug messages. You will find the device_ieee and then command there. The device_ieee is the unique identifier of your button. This way you can split the flow depending on what remote control was used, if you are using multiple remote controls. With command you can detect the button that was pressed. Below you can find a screenshot of a simplified version of how I set it up (to make it more understandable). I have created a gist here, so you can import this flow as well. You will need to change the lights and properties of course. But this way you get an idea of how I did it. Take this as an example and apply it to your setup. And with this, we are finished! I hope you enjoyed created this standing light, and maybe learned something new. The end result should look something like this

https://medium.com/@vixez/creating-a-standing-led-light-with-home-assistant-and-nodemcu-part-3-2a866f2d4260

['Glenn Ruysschaert']

2020-05-15 06:35:03.649000+00:00

['Lighting', 'Home Automation', 'Home Assistant', 'Node Red', 'Led']

CyberPower SL700U standby UPS review: Great for keeping your home network going during power outages

CyberPower SL700U standby UPS review: Great for keeping your home network going during power outages Ashley Jan 11·5 min read The eight-outlet CyberPower SL700U has a problem: it’s not exactly fish nor fowl. This well-made, relatively compact unit can provide backup power of up to 370 watts/700 volt-amperes (VA), enough to provide standby power for about nine minutes for a modest computer, like an iMac or mid-range Dell Inspiron tower with an external monitor. This UPS, however, offers power output from its battery that only simulates the smooth sine wave produced by alternating-current power that comes from an electric utility. This simulation lurches through steps instead of sliding smoothly between negative and positive voltage, which is a problem for modern computer power supplies. This isn’t an issue with solid-state devices such as Wi-Fi routers or broadband modems—those are the devices best suited to use with it. This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best uninterruptible power supplies, where you’ll find reviews of the competition’s offerings, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.Most modern computers feature active power factor correction (PFC). This lets the hardware’s power supply more efficiently transform incoming AC into the DC power used within a computer. It can also work across a variety of voltages and frequencies supplied by utilities around the world. But when you combine a simulated sine wave with active PFC instead of a pure sine wave produced by more-expensive UPSes, the power supply may produce a high-pitched whine whenever power comes from the backup device’s battery. It’s also possible that the power supply can experience small amounts of damage that will add up over time. CyberPower Systems The CyberPower SL700 is best suited to providing backup power to networking equipment, but you might only be able to fit two oversized power adapters because its outlets are close together. This UPS is also configured as a standby model, in contrast to a more advanced line-interactive UPS. A standby UPS taps its battery whenever voltages sags or surges enough that it needs to cut devices from power mains attached to its battery-backed outlets and feed electricity directly. A line-interactive model passes all its power through a conditioner, which cleans up small eccentricities and keeps the battery in reserve for more extreme conditions, or a full-on power outage. That preserves the life of the battery with a line-interactive model in areas with routine power sags, surges, outages, or other problems. A line-interactive UPS can also leap into action in about 4 milliseconds (ms) to provide power from its battery, as opposed to a rated 8ms for the SL700U. That difference can sometimes be enough to crash a sensitive computer. With line-interactive UPSes costing only slightly more watt-for-watt as standby, I recommend computer owners pick that style. This UPS does have a cost advantage for providing battery backup to less-sensitive, but potentially more critical network devices in your home—to wit, a broadband modem, a Wi-Fi router or the access points in a mesh Wi-Fi network, as well as an ethernet switch if you have a profusion of wired devices. Glenn Fleishman / IDG CyberPower’s software lets you configure a number of options for its UPS, even if the UPS isn’t permanently connected to your computer. That kind of equipment has a low power draw, allowing a long runtime on an affordable standby UPS like the SL700U. The rated time for this model would allow keeping 100W of devices running for about 20 minutes, and 50W for about an hour. With particularly power-efficient gear, you might get as long as two hours out of the battery. [ Further reading: The best surge protectors for your costly electronics ]If you’re in a location with relative frequent outages, including ones that last 5 to 20 minutes, you might be able to keep your network going with this UPS, while you use mobile devices and laptops that don’t require their own UPS. (internet service providers often have generators and other backups that let them continue to provide phone, data, and cable services even while there’s a localized or even regional power outage.) If you need just surge protection Tripp Lite TLP1208TELTV Surge Protector Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $30.04See it The eight outlets on the SL700U are divided into three that are protected only against surges, as with any standalone surge protector, and five that are connected to the battery. The placement is a little tight: the five outlets have one placed 2.25 inches away from the next, while the other four are spaced just 1.125 inches apart. (The same is true for the surge-protected outlets, with one spaced further than the other two.) It also has two USB charging ports (5V at up to 2.4A), which is a nice extra. CyberPower offers downloadable software for macOS and Windows that lets you configure the UPS, even if it’s not permanently connected to the computer. You can disable all audible alarms (a big bonus for some people), and set the UPS to restart itself when power returns, among many other features. If you wind up using the UPS with a computer that doesn’t rely on active PFC, you can also use the PowerPanel software to schedule shutdowns and startups, or react automatically when the power is out. (I’m happy to report that an updated version of the Mac software released in August 2020 eliminates problems in installation and usage that I experienced when reviewing another CyberPower devicev earlier in the year.) The SL700 features a wiring fault light—on one short side, next to the USB connector for a computer hook-up—which you should check when first plugging it in. The LED illuminates red if there’s any wiring issue, such as a missing ground, bad ground, or reversed wiring. If you were to buy this unit and see a red light when plugging this UPS in to power, disconnect it and call an electrician immediately. CyberPower includes a useful and extensive manual in the box, as well as full warranty information—unlike some other manufacturers. The company offers three years’ worth of protection against an unexpected failure of the UPS and a perpetual $100,000 worth of insurance against repairs or destruction of attached equipment. Both the UPS and attached-equipment warranties are available only for the original purchaser, who needs to report a failure within 10 days of the incident and provide the original dated purchase receipt. The bottom lineThe computer world has largely moved beyond standby UPS models, but they still have a place: the CyberPower SL700 is the right price for network stability and continuity in the home. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

https://medium.com/@ashley83522262/cyberpower-sl700u-standby-ups-review-great-for-keeping-your-home-netwo-f3c72ba8e952

[]

2021-01-11 18:42:43.145000+00:00

['Home Tech', 'Chargers', 'Streaming']

How I investigated memory leaks in Go using pprof on a large codebase

I have been working with Go for the better part of the year, implementing a scalable blockchain infrastructure at Orbs, and it’s been an exciting year. Over the course of 2018, we researched on which language to choose for our blockchain implementation. This led us to choose Go because of our understanding that it has a good community and an amazing tool-set. In recent weeks we are entering the final stages of integration of our system. As in any large system, the later stage problems which include performance issues, in specific memory leaks, may occur. As we were integrating the system, we realized we found one. In this article I will touch the specifics of how to investigate a memory leak in Go, detailing the steps taken to find, understand and resolve it. The tool-set offered by Golang is exceptional but has its limitations. Touching these first, the biggest one is the limited ability to investigate full core dumps. A full core dump would be the image of the memory (or user-memory) taken by the process running the program. We can imagine the memory mapping as a tree, and traversing that tree would take us through the different allocations of objects and the relations. This means that whatever is at the root is the reason for ‘holding’ the memory and not GCing it (Garbage Collecting). Since in Go there is no simple way to analyze the full core dump, getting to the roots of an object that does not get GC-ed is difficult. At the time of writing, we were unable to find any tool online that can assist us with that. Since there exists a core dump format and a simple enough way to export it from the debug package, it could be that there is one used at Google. Searching online it looks like it is in the Golang pipeline, creating a core dump viewer of such, but doesn’t look like anyone is working on it. Having said that, even without access to such a solution, with the existing tools we can usually get to the root cause. Memory Leaks Memory leaks, or memory pressure, can come in many forms throughout the system. Usually we address them as bugs, but sometimes their root cause may be in design decisions. As we build our system under emerging design principles, such considerations are not believed to be of importance and that is okay. It is more important to build the system in a way that avoids premature optimizations and enables you to perform them later on as the code matures, rather than over engineer it from the get-go. Still, some common examples of seeing memory pressure issues materialize are: Too many allocations, incorrect data representation Heavy usage of reflection or strings Using globals Orphaned, never-ending goroutines In Go, the simplest way to create a memory leak is defining a global variable, array, and appending data to that array. This great blog post describes that case in a good way. So why am I writing this post? When I was researching into this case I found many resources about memory leaks. Yet, in reality systems have more than 50 lines of code and a single struct. In such cases, finding the source of a memory issue is much more complex than what that example describes. Golang gives us an amazing tool called pprof . This tool, when mastered, can assist in investigating and most likely finding any memory issue. Another purpose it has is for investigating CPU issues, but I will not go into anything related to CPU in this post. go tool pprof Covering everything that this tool does will require more than one blog post. One thing that took a while is finding out how to use this tool to get something actionable. I will concentrate this post on the memory related feature of it. The pprof package creates a heap sampled dump file, which you can later analyze / visualize to give you a map of both: Current memory allocations Total (cumulative) memory allocations The tool has the ability to compare snapshots. This can enable you to compare a time diff display of what happened right now and 30 seconds ago, for example. For stress scenarios this can be useful to assist in locating problematic areas of your code. pprof profiles The way pprof works is using profiles. A Profile is a collection of stack traces showing the call sequences that led to instances of a particular event, such as allocation. The file runtime/pprof/pprof.go contains the detailed information and implementation of the profiles. Go has several built in profiles for us to use in common cases: goroutine — stack traces of all current goroutines heap — a sampling of memory allocations of live objects allocs — a sampling of all past memory allocations threadcreate — stack traces that led to the creation of new OS threads block — stack traces that led to blocking on synchronization primitives mutex — stack traces of holders of contended mutexes When looking at memory issues, we will concentrate on the heap profile. The allocs profile is identical in regards of the data collection it does. The difference between the two is the way the pprof tool reads there at start time. Allocs profile will start pprof in a mode which displays the total number of bytes allocated since the program began (including garbage-collected bytes). We will usually use that mode when trying to make our code more efficient. The heap In abstract, this is where the OS (Operating System) stores the memory of objects our code uses. This is the memory which later gets ‘garbage collected’, or freed manually in non-garbage collected languages. The heap is not the only place where memory allocations happen, some memory is also allocated in the Stack. The Stack purpose is short term. In Go the stack is usually used for assignments which happen inside the closure of a function. Another place where Go uses the stack is when the compiler ‘knows’ how much memory needs to be reserved before run-time (e.g. fixed size arrays). There is a way to run the Go compiler so it will output an analysis of where allocations ‘escape’ the stack to the heap, but I will not touch that in this post. While heap data needs to be ‘freed’ and gc-ed, stack data does not. This means it is much more efficient to use the stack where possible. This is an abstract of the different locations where memory allocation happens. There is a lot more to it but this will be outside the scope for this post. Obtaining heap data with pprof There are two main ways of obtaining the data for this tool. The first will usually be part of a test or a branch and includes importing runtime/pprof and then calling pprof.WriteHeapProfile(some_file) to write the heap information. Note that WriteHeapProfile is syntactic sugar for running: // lookup takes a profile name pprof.Lookup("heap").WriteTo(some_file, 0) According to the docs, WriteHeapProfile exists for backwards compatibility. The rest of the profiles do not have such shortcuts and you must use the Lookup() function to get their profile data. The second, which is the more interesting one, is to enable it over HTTP (web based endpoints). This allows you to extract the data adhoc, from a running container in your e2e / test environment or even from ‘production’. This is one more place where the Go runtime and tool-set excels. The entire package documentation is found here, but the TL;DR is you will need to add it to your code as such: import ( "net/http" _ "net/http/pprof" ) ... func main() { ... http.ListenAndServe("localhost:8080", nil) } The ‘side effect’ of importing net/http/pprof is the registration the pprof endpoints under the web server root at /debug/pprof . Now using curl we can get the heap information files to investigate: Adding the http.ListenAndServe() above is only required if your program did not have a http listener before. If you do have one it will hook on it and there is no need to listen again. There are also ways to set it up using a ServeMux.HandleFunc() which would make more sense to a more complex http-enabled program. Using pprof So we have collected the data, what now? As mentioned above, there are two main memory analysis strategies with pprof. One is around looking at the current allocations (bytes or object count), called inuse . The other is looking at all the allocated bytes or object count throughout the run-time of the program, called alloc . This means regardless if it was gc-ed, a summation of everything sampled. This is a good place to reiterate that the heap profile is a sampling of memory allocations. pprof behind the scenes is using the runtime.MemProfile function, which by default collects allocation information on each 512KB of allocated bytes. It is possible to change MemProfile to collect information on all objects. Note that most likely, this will slow down your application. This means that by default, there is some chance that a problem may happen with smaller objects that will slip under pprof’s radar. For a large codebase / long-running program, this is not an issue. Once we collected the profile file, it is time to load it into the interactive console pprof offers. Do so by running: > go tool pprof heap.out Let's observe the information displayed Type: inuse_space Time: Jan 22, 2019 at 1:08pm (IST) Entering interactive mode (type "help" for commands, "o" for options) (pprof) The important thing to note here is the Type: inuse_space . This means we are looking at allocation data of a specific moment (when we captured the profile). The type is the configuration value of sample_index , and the possible values are: inuse_space — amount of memory allocated and not released yet inuse_object s— amount of objects allocated and not released yet alloc_space — total amount of memory allocated (regardless of released) alloc_objects — total amount of objects allocated (regardless of released) Now type top in the interactive, the output will be the top memory consumers We can see a line telling us about Dropped Nodes , this means they are filtered out. A node is an object entry, or a ‘node’ in the tree. Dropping nodes is a good idea to reduce some noise, but sometimes it may hide the root cause of a memory issue. We will see an example of that as we continue our investigation. If you want to include all data of the profile, add the -nodefraction=0 option when running pprof or type nodefraction=0 in the interactive. In the outputted list we can see two values, flat and cum . flat means that the memory allocated by this function and is held by that function means that the memory allocated by this function and is held by that function cum means that the memory was allocated by this function or function that it called down the stack This information alone can sometimes help us understand if there is a problem. Take for example a case where a function is responsible of allocating a lot of memory but is not holding it. This would mean that some other object is pointing to that memory and keeping it allocated, meaning we may have a system design issue or a bug. Another neat trick about top in the interactive window is that it is actually running top10 . The top command supports topN format where N is the number of entries you want to see. In the case pasted above, typing top70 for example, would output all nodes. Visualizations While the topN gives a textual list, there are several very useful visualization options that come with pprof. It is possible to type png or gif and many more (see go tool pprof -help for a full list). On our system, the default visual output looks something like: This may be intimidating at first, but it is the visualization of memory allocation flows (according to stack traces) in a program. Reading the graph is not as complicated as it looks. A white square with a number shows allocated space (and the cumulative of how much memory it’s taking right now on the edge of the graph), and each wider rectangle shows the allocating function. Note that in the above image, I took a png off a inuse_space execution mode. Many times you should also take a look at inuse_objects as well, as it can assist with finding allocation issues. Digging deeper, finding a root cause So far, we were able to understand what is allocating memory in our application during runtime. This helps us get a feeling of how our program behaves (or misbehaves). In our case, we could see that memory is retained by membuffers , which is our data serialization library. This does not mean that we have a memory leak at that code segment, it means that the memory is being retained by that function. It is important to understand how to read the graph, and the pprof output in general . In this case, understanding that when we serialize data, meaning that we allocate memory to structs and primitive objects (int, string), it is never released. Jumping to conclusions or misinterpreting the graph, we could have assumed that one of the nodes on the path to serialization is responsible to retaining the memory, for example: subset of the graph Somewhere in the chain we can see our logging library, responsible for >50MB of allocated memory. This is memory which is allocated by functions called by our logger. Thinking it through, this is actually expected. The logger causes memory allocations as it needs to serialize data for outputting it to the log and thus it is causing memory allocations in the process. We can also see that down the allocation path, the memory is only retained by serialization and nothing else. Additionally, the amount of memory retained by the logger is about 30% of the total. The above tells us that, most likely, the problem is not with the logger. If it was 100%, or something close to it, then we should have been looking there — but it’s not. What it could mean is that something is being logged that shouldn’t be, but it is not a memory leak by the logger. This is a good time to introduce another pprof command called list . It accepts a regular expression which will be a filter of what to list. The ‘list’ is in actual the annotated source code related to the allocation. In the context of the logger which we are looking into, we will execute list RequestNew as we would like to see the calls made to the logger. These calls are coming from two functions which happen to begin with the same prefix. We can see that the allocations made are sitting in the cum column, meaning the memory allocated is retained down the call stack. This correlates to what the graph also shows. At that point it is easy to see that the reason the logger was allocating the memory is because we sent it the entire ‘block’ object. It needed to serialize some parts of it at the very least (our objects are membuffer objects, which always implement some String() function). Is it a useful log message, or good practice? Probably not, but it is not a memory leak, not at the logger end or the code which called the logger. list can find the source code when searching for it under your GOPATH environment. In cases where the root it is searching for does not match, which depends on your build machine, you can use the -trim_path option. This will assist with fixing it and letting you see the annotated source code. Remember to set your git to the right commit which was running when the heap profile was captured. So why is memory retained? The background to this investigation was the suspicion that we have a problem — a memory leak. We came to that notion as we saw memory consumption was higher than what we would expect the system to need. On top of that, we saw it ever increasing, which was another strong indicator for ‘there is a problem here’. At this point, in the case of Java or .Net, we would open some ‘gc roots’ analysis or profiler and get to the actual object which is referencing to that data, and is creating the leak. As explained, this is not exactly possible with Go, both because of a tooling issue but also because of Go’s low level memory representation. Without going into details, we do not think Go retains which object is stored at which address (except for pointers maybe). This means that in actual, understanding which memory address represents which member of your object (struct) will require some sort of mapping to the output of a heap profile. Talking theory, this could mean that before taking a full core dump, one should also take a heap profile so the addresses can be mapped to the allocating line and file and thus the object represented in the memory. At this point, because we are familiar with our system, it was easy to understand this is not a bug anymore. It was (almost) by design. But let’s continue to explore how to get the information from the tools (pprof) to find the root cause. When setting nodefraction=0 we will get to see the entire map of the allocated objects, including the smaller ones. Let’s look at the output: memory visualization with nodefraction=0 We have two new subtrees. Reminding again, pprof heap profile is sampling memory allocations. For our system that works — we are not missing any important information. The longer new tree, in green, which is completely disconnected from the rest of the system is the test runner, it is not interesting. system was configured to “leak” 😞 The shorter one, in blue, which has an edge connecting it to the entire system is inMemoryBlockPersistance . That name also explains the ‘leak’ we imagined we have. This is the data backend, which is storing all data in memory and not persisting to disk. Whats nice to note is that we could see immediately that it is holding two large objects. Why two? Because we can see the object is of size 1.28MB and the function is retaining 2.57MB, meaning two of them. The problem is well understood at this point. We could have used delve (the debugger) to see that this is the array holding all blocks for the in-memory persistence driver we have. So what could we fix? Well, that sucked, it was a human error. While the process was educating (and sharing is caring), we did not get any better, or did we? There was one thing that still ‘smelled’ about this heap information. The deserialized data was taking up too much memory, why 142MB for something that should be taking substantially less? . . pprof can answer that — actually, it exists to answer such questions exactly. To look into the annotated source code of the function, we will run list lazy . We use lazy , as the function name we are looking for is lazyCalcOffsets() and we know no other functions in our code begin with lazy. Typing list lazyCalcOffsets would work as well of course. We can see two interesting pieces of information. Again, remember that pprof heap profile samples information about allocations. We can see that both the flat and the cum numbers are the same. This indicates that the memory allocated is also retained by these allocation points. Next, we can see that the make() is taking some memory. That makes sense, it is the pointer to the data structure. Yet we also see the assignment at line 43 is taking up memory, meaning it creates an allocation. This educated us about maps, where an assignment to a map is not a straightforward variable assignment. This article goes into great detail on how map works. In short a map has an overhead, and the more elements the bigger this overhead is going to ‘cost’ when comparing to a slice. The following should be taken with a grain of salt: It would be okay to say that using a map[int]T , when the data is not sparse or can be converted to sequential indices, should usually be attempted with a slice implementation if memory consumption is a relevant consideration. Yet, a large slice, when expanded, might slow down an operation, where in a map this slowdown will be negligible. There is no magic formula for optimizations. In the code above, after checking how we used that map, we realized that while we imagined it to be a sparse array, it came out as not so sparse. This matches the above argument and we could immediately see that a small refactor of changing the map to a slice is actually possible, and might make that code more memory efficient. So we changed it to: line 10/34 from above is 5 here As simple as that, instead of using a map we are now using a slice. Because of the way we receive the data which is lazy loaded into it, and how we later access that data, other than these two lines and the struct holding that data, no other code change was required. What did it do to the memory consumption? Let’s look at the benchcmp for just a couple of tests The read tests initialize the data structure, which creates the allocations. We can see that runtime improved by ~30%, allocations are down by 50% and memory consumption by >90% (!) Since the map, now-slice, was never filled with a lot of items, the numbers pretty much show what we will see in production. It depends on the data entropy, but there may be cases where both allocations and memory consumption improvements would have been even greater. Looking at pprof again, and taking a heap profile from the same test we will see that now the memory consumption is in fact down by ~90%. The takeaway will be that for smaller data sets, you shouldn’t use maps where slices would suffice, as maps have a large overhead. Full core dump As mentioned, this is where we see the biggest limitation with tooling right now. When we were investigating this issue we got obsessed with being able to get to the root object, without much success. Go evolves over time at a great pace, but that evolution comes with a price in the case of the full dump or memory representation. The full heap dump format, as it changes, is not backwards compatible. The latest version described here and to write a full heap dump, you can use debug.WriteHeapDump() . Albeit right now we do not find ourselves ‘stuck’ because there is no good solution for exploring full dumps. pprof answered all our questions until now. Do note, the internet remembers a lot of information which is no longer relevant. Here are some things you should ignore if you are going to try and open a full dump yourself, as of go1.11: There is no way to open and debug a full core dump on MacOS, only Linux. The tools at https://github.com/randall77/hprof are for Go1.3, there exists a fork for 1.7+ but it does not work properly either (incomplete). viewcore at https://github.com/golang/debug/tree/master/cmd/viewcore does not really compile. It is easy enough to fix (packages in the internal are pointing to golang.org and not github.com), but, it does not work either, not on MacOS, maybe on Linux. Also https://github.com/randall77/corelib fails on MacOS pprof UI One last detail to be aware of when it comes to pprof, is its UI feature. It can save a lot of time when beginning an investigation into any issue relating to a profile taken with pprof. go tool pprof -http=:8080 heap.out At that point it should open the web browser. If it does not then browse to the port you set it to. It enables you to change the options and get the visual feedback much faster than you can from the command line. A very useful way to consume the information. The UI actually got me familiar with the flame graphs, which expose culprit areas of the code very quickly. Conclusion Go is an exciting language with a very rich toolset, there is a lot more you can do with pprof. This post does not touch CPU profiling at all, for example. Some other good reads:

https://medium.com/free-code-camp/how-i-investigated-memory-leaks-in-go-using-pprof-on-a-large-codebase-4bec4325e192

['Jonathan Levison']

2019-04-13 06:01:57.159000+00:00

['Golang', 'Software Development', 'Debugging', 'Technology', 'Programming']

KETO FITNESS: Can you lose weight on keto without exercise?

KETO FITNESS: Can you lose weight on keto without exercise? The Keto diet is a highly effective weight loss diet, and hundreds of websites share information about it for free online. As a result of this, it is natural and normal for you or anyone else to question why a professional keto diet guide and plan is needed when almost everything is available online for free. This is a huge temptation that many people have unknowingly fallen to and have added to, hence compounding their struggle to lose weight through the keto diet. You need to be careful of this and avoid falling for it. >> Go here and see a professional working Keto Smart Guide It is very important that you understand that dieting is not as easy as it may sound or look to many people. Like other things in life, planning is also necessary for dieting, which helps identify the objective and devise a practical approach to achieving it. For this reason, the Keto Smart Guide is very essential for everyone that is seeking to lose weight. The Keto Smart Guide has a systemic approach that is designed to help you achieve your weight-related targets, and it is exceptionally helpful for first timers. It is generally known and accepted that the hardest part of any diet is how to begin, and exactly how much to eat. Fortunately, the Keto Smart Guide addresses these issues and more. This is why losing weight with the Keto Smart Guide is better and highly encouraged. In the Keto Smart Guide, you also discover: - Keto Tips To Boost Weight Loss - Foods To Eat On A Keto Diet - Starting & Adapting To Keto Lifestyle - How to Cure Control Diseases With Keto - Ketogenic Diet Science & Types In addition to the Keto Smart Guide, you also get the Keto Smart Recipes for FREE. The Keto Smart Recipes contains 25 of the most popular, delicious, healthy & ketosis-boosting recipes — for all your meals including snacks & desserts (Yes there is ice cream & cheesecake included!). It includes: - All-Day Keto Meal Plans - In-Depth Preparation Guide - Storage & Re-Use Instructions - Nutritional Info Per Serving Included Tips To Match Alternative Tastes Whether you are a beginner who is looking to join the keto revolution or someone who wants to take their keto results to the next level, the keto-expert curated guide has it all! NOTE: This article contains (affiliate links) and will be marked accordingly if you click on any of these links and purchase any of the products I may receive a small commission, thank you.❤️

https://medium.com/@marketplaceguide/keto-fitness-can-you-lose-weight-on-keto-without-exercise-23a242e5a28a

['Marketplace Guide']

2021-12-30 18:57:18.372000+00:00

['Ketogenic Diet', 'Ketogenic', 'Keto Fitness', 'Weightloss Recipe', 'Keto Meal Plan']

Jumbled Word Game

Code !pip install ipywidgets !pip install requests import copy import random import threading import time import ipywidgets import requests from IPython.display import display random_word = '' score = 0 random_word_length = 0 no_of_hints = 0 data = [] hint_letter = '' jumbled_text = ipywidgets.Label(value='Jumbled Text : ') text_entered = ipywidgets.Label(value='Text Entered : ') text = ipywidgets.Text(description="Text", disabled=True) score_label = ipywidgets.Label(value='Score : ') hint_text = ipywidgets.Label(value='Hint Text : ') hint_remaining = ipywidgets.Label(value='Hints Remaining : ') btn_hint = ipywidgets.Button(description='Hint', disabled=True) high_score_label = ipywidgets.Label(value='High Score : ') time_remaining = 0 def text_change(change): """ Changing text entered label value when the user enters text through the text box. When the text entered is equal to the random word, the textbox is rendered empty. :param change: Handling change event from the text box. """ if change["new"] == "Expected": text.value = "" text_entered.value = "Text Entered : " + change["new"] text.observe(text_change, names='value') w = ipywidgets.Dropdown( options=['Beginner', 'Intermediate', 'Advanced'], value='Beginner', description='Choose Level:', ) def set_hint_text(): """ Set the default hint text for the intermediate and advanced level. The default hint text is '__'*{word_length} based on the level selected. """ initial_hint_text = '' if random_word_length > 4: for i in range(random_word_length): initial_hint_text += '__' if i < random_word_length - 1: initial_hint_text += " " hint_text.value = 'Hint Text : ' + initial_hint_text def jumble_random_word(): """ Jumbling the random word of a given length depending on the level selected. The random.shuffle() method is sometimes giving same string thus a while loop to re-iterate the same. Also the random word generated by the above might be a word in data obtained from json so it is also re-iterated. :return: jumbled_word. """ set_word_length_on_level() set_random_word() temp_word = random_word random_word_list = list(random_word) temp = copy.deepcopy(random_word_list) while temp == random_word_list or temp_word in data: random.shuffle(random_word_list) temp_word = ''.join(random_word_list) jumbled_word = ''.join(random_word_list) return jumbled_word def set_random_word(): """ Setting the random word based on the level selected by user. """ global data global random_word words_with_length_k = [] response = requests.get("http://raw.githubusercontent.com/sindresorhus/mnemonic-words/master/words.json") data = response.json() for _, value in enumerate(data): if len(value) == random_word_length: words_with_length_k.append(value) random_word = random.choice(words_with_length_k) def set_word_length_on_level(): """ Setting random word length based on the level selected. """ global random_word_length if w.value == 'Beginner': random_word_length = 4 elif w.value == 'Intermediate': random_word_length = 5 elif w.value == 'Advanced': random_word_length = 6 display(w) display(score_label) display(jumbled_text) b = ipywidgets.HBox([hint_text, btn_hint, hint_remaining]) display(b) display(text_entered, text) btn_start = ipywidgets.Button(description='Start') btn_pause = ipywidgets.Button(description='Pause',disabled=True) btn_resume = ipywidgets.Button(description='Resume',disabled=True) btn_exit = ipywidgets.Button(description='Exit') left_box = ipywidgets.VBox([btn_start, btn_pause]) right_box = ipywidgets.VBox([btn_resume, btn_exit]) a = ipywidgets.HBox([left_box, right_box]) display(a) def on_pause_button_clicked(b): """ On Click Event for the Pause Button. The timer thread is notified to stop through threading. The text box and hint button is disabled. The pause button is disabled. The score is decremented based on the constraint. :param b: pause button. """ global score e.clear() b.disabled = True text.disabled = True btn_hint.disabled = True if score > 0: score -= 1 score_label.value = 'Score : ' + str(score) btn_pause.on_click(on_pause_button_clicked) def on_exit_button_clicked(b): """ On Click event for the exit button. The timer thread is notified to stop. The controls are invalidated. :param b: exit button. """ e.clear() text.disabled = True btn_start.disabled = True btn_resume.disabled = True btn_pause.disabled = True b.disabled = True w.disabled = True btn_hint.disabled = True btn_exit.on_click(on_exit_button_clicked) def on_hint_button_clicked(b): """ On Click event for the hint button. The hint text is updated based on the level selected. The hints remaining label value is updated. The hint button is disabled based on the remaining hints. :param b: hint button. """ global no_of_hints global hint_letter s_upd = '' if no_of_hints == 0: s_upd += random_word[0] hint_letter = random_word[0] s_upd += " " for i in range(random_word_length - 1): s_upd += '__' if i < random_word_length - 2: s_upd += " " elif no_of_hints == 1: for i in range(random_word_length): if i > 0: if i == 3: s_upd += random_word[3] else: s_upd += '__' else: s_upd += hint_letter if i < random_word_length - 1: s_upd += " " hint_text.value = 'Hint Text : ' + s_upd no_of_hints += 1 set_hint_remaining() btn_hint.disabled = disable_hint_button_based_on_hints() btn_hint.on_click(on_hint_button_clicked) def on_resume_button_clicked(b): """ On Click Event for the resume button. The timer thread is notified to resume again. The text box is enabled. The pause button is enabled if it is disabled. The hint button is enabled/disabled based on the number of hints remaining. :param b: resume button. """ e.set() text.disabled = False if(btn_pause.disabled): btn_pause.disabled = False btn_hint.disabled = disable_hint_button_based_on_hints() def disable_hint_button_based_on_hints(): """ Disabling the hint button based on constraints for the game levels. :return: True indicating the button can be disabled else False. """ return (random_word_length == 4) or (random_word_length == 5 and no_of_hints == 1) or (random_word_length == 6 and no_of_hints == 2) btn_resume.on_click(on_resume_button_clicked) def set_timer_based_on_level(): """ Setting the timer based on the game level. """ global time_remaining if w.value == 'Beginner': time_remaining = 80 elif w.value == 'Intermediate': time_remaining = 100 elif w.value == 'Advanced': time_remaining = 120 def set_hint_remaining(): """ Setting the hint remaining label value based on the number of hints for each game level. """ value = 0 if random_word_length == 5: value = 1 - no_of_hints elif random_word_length == 6: value = 2 - no_of_hints hint_remaining.value = 'Hints Remaining : ' + str(value) def on_start_button_clicked(b): """ On Click Event for the start button. Setting the timer function based on level is called. The jumbled random word function is called. The set hint text and hints remaining function is called. The threading mechanism is called to start the countdown timer. The start button is disabled while pause and resume buttons are enabled. The textbox is enabled and the dropdown menu is disabled. The hint button is disabled based on the random word length. :param b: start button. """ set_timer_based_on_level() jumbled_word = jumble_random_word() jumbled_text.value = "Jumbled Text : " + jumbled_word set_hint_text() set_hint_remaining() thread = threading.Thread(target=countdown, args=(e,)) thread.start() e.set() btn_start.disabled = True text.disabled = False btn_pause.disabled = False btn_resume.disabled = False w.disabled = True if random_word_length > 4: btn_hint.disabled = False btn_start.on_click(on_start_button_clicked) def update_score_on_level(): """ Updating the game score based on the correct answer for the selected game level. """ global score if w.value == 'Beginner': score += 1 elif w.value == 'Intermediate': score += 2 else: score += 4 def print_result_on_console(result): """ Printing the result after game finishes. :param result: The message to be printed on the console after the game finishes which is Right/Wrong. """ print(result, end='\r') text.value = "" def countdown(event): """ Running timer based on game level and handling thread to notify the timer to start/stop based on user action. The user action here denotes the click on resume/pause button. Printing the result message on the console function is called. The update score function is called. The timer countdown is printed on the bottom of the screen. The dropdown menu is enabled post game completion while other controls are invalidated. The start button is enabled. :param event: Denoting it as a target function for threading. """ global time_remaining global no_of_hints global data event_is_set = True while time_remaining >= 0 and event_is_set: event_is_set = e.wait() if text.value == random_word: print_result_on_console("Right") time_remaining = 0 update_score_on_level() break minutes, secs = divmod(time_remaining, 60) time_format = '{:02d}:{:02d}'.format(minutes, secs) print(time_format, end='\r') time.sleep(1) time_remaining -= 1 if text.value != "" and text.value != random_word: print_result_on_console("Wrong") score_label.value = 'Score : ' + str(score) hint_remaining.value = 'Hints Remaining : ' jumbled_text.value = "Jumbled Text : " btn_start.disabled = False w.disabled = False text.disabled = True hint_text.value = 'Hint Text : ' btn_hint.disabled = True btn_pause.disabled = True btn_resume.disabled = True no_of_hints = 0 data = [] e = threading.Event()

https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/jumbled-word-game-3fc416829fe4

['Sumeet Lalla']

2020-12-02 15:34:38.560000+00:00

['Python', 'Multithreading', 'Ipywidgets']

How Dunning–Kruger effect is killing Monica B’s Youtube career?

A dear friend Monica B Is as smart as one can be A PhD in Physics For 20 years, has been teaching kids But making YouTube videos she dreads “They have to be perfect As my colleagues all over the globe will watch my act” I was a sales guy for 15 years Am a 57% engineer 4 years washed down in beer Fed up of corporate a-holes Hollow hyperboles I learnt Physics, ab initio And uploaded + 300 YouTube videos Now I am not an internet sensation Have only friends and students in my subscription But at times I wonder While wifey blasts me/my life asunder “ Why Monica B’s YouTube career is zippo While I upload my one legged Physics lectures with such gusto?” Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels “The answer” my son said “ is Dunning–Kruger” (he can read my mind?) As he pulled his head out of the computer “You, dear daddy, belong to a set of people with low ability who happily overestimate their capability But people like aunt Monica B are a set of smart people whose intelligence is their biggest liability “ I threw my laptop at his head As the kiddo fled That much I had to agree Judging oneself day and night Is a sure way to snuff that holy creative light!

https://medium.com/@isequaltoklassesnavneet/how-dunning-kruger-effect-killed-monica-bs-youtube-career-c4ee7f617e23

['Isequaltoklasses Navneet']

2020-12-20 14:57:19.160000+00:00

['Poetry Writing', 'Creativity Tips', 'Writing Tips', 'Youtube Tips', 'Poetry Sunday']

Programming Paradigms. When I was ten years old, the first…

The Declarative and Imperative Paradigms The declarative and imperative programming paradigms date back to the earliest days of programming. Here are examples of declarative and imperative paradigms being implemented in JavaScript: // Declarative paradigm, the filtering is abstracted away const allPets = ["Dog", "Cat", "Hamster"]; const goodPets = allPets.filter((pet) => pet !== "Hamster"); and // Imperative paradigm const allPets = ["Dog", "Cat", "Hamster"]; const goodPets = []; for (let pet of allPets) { if (pet !== "Hamster") { goodPets.push(pet); } } As you can see, the declarative paradigm is more about the what while the imperative paradigm describes the how. Having the ability to describe the how is often important for efficiencies in code. For instance if you wanted to do more than just filter out items while iterating through the array, you could do so with the imperative approach while the declarative approach may be redundant and inefficient, or sometimes impossible if the functionality that you desire isn’t already abstracted.

https://medium.com/@ngaet02/programming-paradigms-why-are-they-important-3cb1e2a5f027

['Noah Gaeta']

2020-12-12 22:41:05.845000+00:00

['Programmer', 'Software Development', 'Paradigm', 'Software Engineering', 'Programming Languages']

Appointing former USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack widely known for lying about the success of black…

Appointing former USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack widely known for lying about the success of black farmers under his tenure, is putting the old white Fox in the chicken coop. He’s just coming back to play with his big agriculture corporate cronies. We need real help to heal deep flaws in food policy. I live in Nebraska where 42% of babies are born with low birth weight. We have terrible food and transportation policies with distribution the primary peduncle. If some of the poorest counties in Nebraska live near Farmers, why are one of every four children hungry? Instead of making Congresswoman Fudge Housing Director, she needs to be Secretary of Agriculture. The USDA needs Mama Fudge in charge. Put a black woman in office and you know the ish will get done!

https://medium.com/antiracist-nursing-news/appointing-former-usda-secretary-tom-vilsack-widely-known-for-lying-about-the-success-of-black-9370cf1f2df8

['Courtney Allen-Gentry Rn Msn Phn Ahn-Bc Hwnc-Bc']

2020-12-17 14:43:32.995000+00:00

['Sustainability', 'Food', 'Politics', 'Policy']

Do freelancers and contractors support or diminish a ‘do-it-yourself’ lifestyle?

If technology and robots make the completion of tasks quicker and easier, does that then mean humans are become lazier or have more time to do other things? Whilst there are arguments supporting either side, I am of the opinion that individuals now realise how precious the commodity of time is and the ‘value of a dollar’, and thus strongly believe in people having more time to do things. With the cost of living slowly rising, the trend of ‘doing-it-yourself’ is being brought back from its twentieth-century foothold by young to middle-aged Millennials. In a world where everything can be digitised, consumers are experiencing a backlash in the efficiency that app companies are creating by charging a continual list of expenses in order to complete jobs such as cooking food, meal delivery, cleaning and home maintenance. And whilst some people are totally in awe of the 15 to 45mins that are saved by these freelance and professionally hired services, the costs do add up, and people soon find that the amount of income they earn is not sufficient to support this ‘uber’ lifestyle. Now if people can support this lifestyle of assigning duties to other people and still have a few dollars in the bank, congratulations, however, for the group of people who cannot, I highly encourage you to embrace the DIY economy. Whether it be for employment, or just to save some money on a job around the house, the premise of ‘doing-it-yourself’ is a self-sustaining movement that will keep cash in your pocket and control back in your life. However, the payoff for the thousand-odd dollars you save per year will be the extra elbow grease and time you need to allocate. Although the DIY economy has been in existence since the beginning of civilisation and made popular in the 1900s, mainstream media has pounced on the opportunity to sell people the ‘fantasy’ that everyone can be a DIY-er as shown in various programs of house flipping, home improvement, cooking at home, and fitness. And whilst this makes for good television entertainment, the reality is that the money you save is compensated by extra stress that has to be solely burdened by you. Is saving an extra $600 dollars a year on garden maintenance worth it? For most people yes. I don’t expect you to read this article and then immediately decide to start gutting and renovating your home, however, I will suggest three easy places where you can ‘trial’ the DIY lifestyle for yourself. Food — Start cooking your own meals. The takeaway food industry has exploded over the past three years with useful apps and services which can easily connect people with food shops, and whilst this is highly convenient it is also highly taxing on your wallet. Spend a couple hundred dollars a month on groceries, and start using that induction cooktop that is in your apartment. Home and garden maintenance — This market probably has the best potential to go beyond just the home, and possibly into a ‘side hustle’. Whilst businesses have a right to charge a fee for a professional service, freelance and contract app platforms such as Airtasker can equally charge as much (you don’t want some random person butchering your hedges). So, spend a couple hundred dollars on a lawn mower, line trimmer and hedge trimmer (and some safety equipment) and start making a net saving on those monthly gardening costs. Similarly, the home cleaning services can amount to thousands of dollars a year on services that can be done for around $300 for the year. No one said DIY was going to be pleasant so be prepared. Clothing — Unless you own garments that are designed and constructed in such a way that dry-cleaning is the only way to maintain them, do your laundry yourself. Whitegoods are coming down in price as more and more brands look to create a competitive status in the market, and that means that the cost of operating and buying a washing machine and dryer (in the long run), is minute when compared to the weekly cost of dry-cleaning which can cost up to $100 a week or over $5000 a year. All in all, it is true to say that DIY is a physical lifestyle. Whilst it isn’t the most visually appealing, it is hard to believe that people can justify spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year on simple jobs that only require an hour or two a month to complete. It is interesting to note that the rise of the freelance and on-demand economy, has also produced a simultaneous wave of first-time DIY-ers who are looking to save money in their household bank account. Although it should be noted that if you can afford the price mechanism of the market, there is nothing wrong with that, to suggest that everyone has the luxury of scheduling monthly appointments for home maintenance or weekly trips to dry-cleaners is absurd and so the power thus finds its way back to the people.

https://medium.com/@jamesc.content/do-freelancers-and-contractors-support-or-diminish-a-do-it-yourself-lifestyle-b3a580896c1

['James Chee']

2019-05-09 02:31:05.432000+00:00

['Freelancers', 'Lifestyle', 'DIY', 'Startup', 'Values']

Drown

When you want to cry but you know it will take over and you won’t be able to make it stop fearing it will drown you so you hold it in and hope hope that it does not consume from within

https://medium.com/@ekspencer/drown-dd61de836e8d

['E.K. Spencer']

2021-01-02 11:48:21.927000+00:00

['Writing', 'Ocean', 'Poetry Writing', 'Poetry', 'Emotions']

How to Scan an AWS S3 File for Viruses in JavaScript

How to Scan an AWS S3 File for Viruses in JavaScript Cloudmersive Apr 6·2 min read Amazon Web Services Simple Storage Service (a.k.a. AWS S3) provides object storage through a web service interface. It is one of the most popular options for cloud storage, and was also one of the first, with competing services popping up to follow suit after AWS S3’s broad adoption. If your business relies on this storage as a secure space for company objects and files, it’s important to ensure that infected files don’t contaminate your content. The following API can be run in JavaScript to scan the contents of an AWS S3 file for viruses and malware; it provides wide file format support as well as multi-threat scanning. Our first step is to install the jQuery library: bower install jquery Next, we need to input a few parameters to ensure the operation runs smoothly including the AWS S# access key, secret key, bucket region, and bucket name. Once we have all our information plugged in, we can call the virus scan function with the following code: The result will indicate if any of the contents were identified as threats, and if so, will specify both the infected file name as well as the virus name.

https://medium.com/@cloudmersive/how-to-scan-an-aws-s3-file-for-viruses-in-javascript-6b63ab89737f

[]

2021-04-06 14:38:44.785000+00:00

['Tutorial', 'JavaScript', 'API', 'AWS', 'Virus']

India is Losing its Soul: The Demise of Secularism

The astonishing diversity of people and cultures in India is one of the defining characteristics of the nation. People with various cultural backgrounds, including language, customs, music, dance, food, and even religion, all coalesce together in big cities. They attend one another’s weddings, celebrate one another’s achievements, grieve with one another during funerals, and support one another through hardships. The fact that people from many different cultures live together creates a sense of appreciation for others and their stories. This, I believe, is the soul of India. I relay this sentiment through the stories that my parents told me of their upbringing in Bombay. These stories greatly informed my own outlook, especially in light of the vitriolic rhetoric we face in both the U.S. and India. There are so many similarities between the two countries, and while certainly the two are not perfectly analogous, I think it is worthwhile to compare and contrast the two to gleam insight into how each grapples with the issues surrounding diversity and discrimination in all aspects of society. Image courtesy of Wikipedia, 2007 There are clearly a number of parallels between the two nations. Both were once British colonies that have since developed into secular, constitutional democracies. Although 170 years separate their independence, the histories of each were shaped by one another. The secular ideals of the U.S. Constitution heavily influenced its Indian counterpart. Civil disobedience and the non-violent protests first championed by Mahatma Gandhi were instrumental to Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of the civil rights movement. These shared ties originate because both nations are built from a mosaic of diverse cultural heritage, with significant minority populations. While today some celebrate this diversity, others use it to sow discord into society, magnifying the differences between people to turn them against one another. Catalyzing turmoil is a tactic is used by tyrants to advance their own agenda at the expense of society. Pitting friends against one another allows them to hide their true intent and act with impunity. Dehumanizing the “other side” lends them the necessary credence to act with impunity. Whether through policies such as the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, or by revoking the statehood of Muslim-majority Kashmir and Jammu, it is increasingly clear that Modi and the BJP thrive on pitting Hindus and Muslims against one another to rally support for their own personal agendas. However, the Hindu-Muslim rivalry was not always this fervent. For the majority of Indians, religion was not nearly as much a defining characteristic as other factors such as language, customs, music, and food. India was mosaic of “dizzyingly diverse” and multicultural communities. Completely ignoring this concept of an Indian identity, the British decided hastily to separate the country into two, sowing the seeds of discord for decades to come. This brutal process, called the Partition, separated families and communities on the basis of religion, which had little to do with how people distinguished themselves. Two families from across the border may have more in common with one another — from language to customs to food — than one family from Eastern India and another from Western India. This is especially true between North India and South India, where languages and customs are markedly more important to identity. “Many Muslim families split over whether to leave for this imagined separate homeland or to remain in India, where, despite the brutality of partition, the ardently secular Nehru reassured them that they had a home. He articulated his ideal of a composite Indian citizen, who was enriched and shaped by all the heritages that flowed through the world’s most diverse society. As a child of the neighboring Islamic republic (and a steady consumer of Indian popular culture), I grew up admiring that multilingual, kaleidoscopic country. Later, I pursued my education at American universities, in classrooms led by the children of Nehruvian India, and my professors’ stories of religious coexistence inspired me to want to visit that alternative version of South Asia. From afar, India always seemed to be a symphonic banquet of possibilities, in contrast with the monochromatic vision of Pakistan’s religious leaders.” Bilal Qureshi This is the same vision of India that I grew up with. The stories that my parents told me of their own upbringing in Mumbai, where people of all different cultures, languages, and backgrounds mix were instrumental in shaping my own understanding of the “melting pot” culture of the United States. Looking at the U.S. through this lens, the role of multiculturalism and tolerance seemed to be a big component of American growth and rise to power. Importantly, it was fascinating to be at the intersection many different cultures, including living in a mostly-white and Protestant suburban town and going to public school, then going to Catholic school for two years, then a public STEM school, and having friends from throughout India and Pakistan. This perspective was invaluable to my understanding of the world. It was important to me that I connect to people who are different from me and learn from them and their stories. Whether that difference was in culture, religion, or viewpoints on political issues, speaking with other people taught me the immense nuance that is required to effectively develop an opinion on any given topic. Creating a society where people are tolerant of one another is an important part of this process. The history of India has shown just how successful a government that encourages multiculturalism and social discourse can be. Today, a secular government that protects the civil liberties of its people is absolutely critical. [In] recent years Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have systematically dismantled Nehru’s vision for India. This month, India’s Parliament passed a new bill that enshrines in law a religiously inflected definition of who belongs in India. The Citizenship Amendment Bill provides a path to citizenship for undocumented migrants from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan who are Hindus, Christians, Jains, Parsees and Buddhists, but explicitly excludes Muslims. [. . .] The law is more than just the latest in a series of Hindu-nationalist and Islamophobic policies. In a nation that is home to the largest Muslim population outside Muslim-majority countries, the bill extends an ideological project that breaks the very promise of India. Bilal Qureshi The very promise of India is written in the preamble of its Constitution, just like the U.S., being a secular democratic republic. However, unlike the U.S., there are no explicit guarantees of a separation of “church and state.” Therefore, it is paramount that Indian citizens continue their fight against an oppressive government that insists on a religious basis of citizenship. Take examples of other religious states — Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, even Pakistan — and the serious flaws of state-sanctioned religion become obvious. The Constitution is meant to be a protector of rights and a protector of people. When first introduced, the Indian Constitution was “regarded as some as an elite document drafted in an alien language.” While that was true, having been written in English and not comprehensible to the vast majority of Indians, its promise became a beacon of hope for countless Indians, looking for an escape from the brutality of the Partition and solidifying a multicultural and tolerant society. Today, Modi is starting a siege on the constitution. Rohit De reminds us that “the Constitution was ‘not just dull, lifeless words . . . but living flames intended to give life to a great nation, . . . tongues of dynamic fire, potent to mold the future.’” Modi’s sudden takeover in Kashmir is the fulfillment of a long ideological yearning to make a predominantly Muslim population surrender to his vision of a homogeneous Hindu nation. It is also a way of conveying to the rest of India — a union of dizzyingly diverse states — that no one is exempt from the Hindu-power paradise he wants to build on the subcontinent. Kashmir is both a warning and a template: Any state that deviates from this vision can be brought under Delhi’s thumb in the name of “unity.” Those who believe that such a day will never come — that India’s democratic institutions and minority protections will assert themselves — also never thought that someone like Modi would one day lead the country. Modi once seemed destined to disappear into history as a fanatical curio. As the newly appointed chief minister of Gujarat, he presided over the worst communal bloodletting in India’s recent history in 2002, when 1,000 Muslims, by a conservative estimate, were slaughtered by sword-wielding Hindus in his state over several weeks. Some accused Modi of abetting the mobs; others said he turned a blind eye to them. The carnage made Modi a pariah: Liberal Indians likened him to Hitler, the United States denied him a visa, and Britain and the European Union boycotted him. Kapil Komireddi The erosion of norms by both Trump and Modi is a stark reminder that despite the protections afforded by the Constitution or by political norms, it is up to the people to maintain their own government. Muslims in India “have faced lynchings, lethal riots, and social and political disenfranchisement,” especially in recent years. The response of both Black Americans during the civil rights movement and Muslims in India today have been similar: a strengthened commitment to the ideals held in the Constitution. When minorities are pushed to such walls, they may retreat into a siege mentality that breeds radicalization. But India’s Muslims have not come up with calls for violent jihad, nor chants for Shariah law. Instead, they have embraced and emphasized the blessings of liberal democracy by placing their faith in the Constitution of India and insisting on their constitutional rights as citizens. [. . .] The B.J.P.’s propaganda machine depicted Muslim protesters as “traitors” and “anti-nationals,” but they were wearing headbands saying, “I love India.” waving Indian flags, and repeatedly singing the national anthem. Mustafa Akyol and Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar It is important that protesters not fall into the trap of violence. Relying on civil disobedience may not seem to work, especially in the face of tyrants that thrive on bigotry and division. But, the struggles, and victories, of both Gandhi and King showed that non-violence and unity create a force of good that simply cannot be reckoned with in the long term. This is fundamentally why both the Indian independence movement and the U.S. civil rights movement were so successful. BJP leaders, in addition to marginalizing religious minorities, are erasing Nehru’s secular vision. They have crafted an alternative national narrative that recasts the country’s Hindu majority as victims and its era of Muslim empires as one of loss and shame. In the words of historian Sunil Khilnani, they have “weaponized history,” rewriting a period of composite Muslim dynasties such as the Mughals, who built the Taj Mahal and governed with multicultural courts, as a time of conquest by outsiders. Bilal Qureshi The whole point of India is that it is a secular nation. I find it quite odd that the Hindu nationalist government is instituting religious ideals in their policies. Isn’t that what Pakistan is for? His policies and vision for India are turning a once secular democracy into a plutocratic, “ethno-religious state.” India’s story could hold lessons for Muslims elsewhere. Across the border, Pakistan long ago established what India’s B.J.P. seeks: an ethno-religious state dominated by the majority. In Pakistan’s case, this means the hegemony of Sunni Muslims at the expense of minorities such as Shiite Muslims, Ahmadis or Christians. Mustafa Akyol and Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar If India continues on this trajectory, Modi will have devolved India into the equivalent of Pakistan. India will then have lost it’s soul. Dossier “Why India’s Muslims Reach for Liberalism,” by Mustafa Akyol and Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar, October 30, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/opinion/india-muslims-liberalism.html “India once welcomed Muslims like me. Under Modi, it rejects us as invaders.” by Bilal Qureshi, December 17, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/12/17/india-once-welcomed-muslims-like-me-under-modi-it-rejects-us-invaders/ “The Kashmir crisis isn’t about territory. It’s about a Hindu victory over Islam” by Kapil Komireddi, August 16, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-kashmir-crisis-isnt-about-territory-its-about-a-hindu-victory-over-islam/2019/08/16/ab84ffe2-bf79-11e9-a5c6-1e74f7ec4a93_story.html “We are Witnessing a Rediscovery of India’s Republic,” by Rohin De and Surabhi Ranganathan, December 27, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/opinion/india-constitution-protests.html “What is Article 370, and Why Does It Matter in Kashmir?” by Vindu Goel, August 5, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/world/asia/india-pakistan-crisis.html “India’s Muslims: An Increasingly Marginalized Population,” by Lindsay Maizland, August 20, 2020. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/india-muslims-marginalized-population-bjp-modi

https://medium.com/@sahilnawab/india-is-losing-its-soul-83e3f8f1e86d

['Sahil Nawab']

2021-02-01 17:55:33.048000+00:00

['Islam', 'Pakistan', 'India', 'Government', 'Policy']

Conversations

Conversations What is a real conversation? Photo by cottonbro from Pexels A real conversation You know it, you feel it A meeting of minds A synchrony of souls When you can keep me up all night with only your words, playing in the filthiest of gutters, or swimming in the murkiest of depths When I prefer hearing your voice over food and sleep even sex…maybe Good conversation is a lot like fucking someone you love It’s a dance of passion, a coordinated act of vulnerability where everyone involved drops their guards, removes their clothes, bares their truest of selves A real conversation is one that you don’t want to end And it need not be between two people Could be a writer and her reader, a lesson from a trusted teacher, a life altering sermon from a preacher Could be your favorite podcaster in your ear speaking their heart out in a way that feels like it’s only for you Technology and modality have nothing to do with it. Because these methods evolve, the delivery is always changing We now converse with our thumbs and through glass eyes and LED screens But the sentiments remain the same Sincerity Trust Truth and Realness at all costs Say what you mean Be who you are Put fear aside Give meaning to all your words That’s the path to real conversation, because the loyalty and attention of the other person is always at stake

https://medium.com/scuzzbucket/conversations-ec347881e7e1

['Franco Amati']

2020-12-26 01:48:38.627000+00:00

['Communication', 'Psychology', 'Poetry', 'Prose', 'Scuzzbucket']

GoChain Now Officially Supported By Trezor

It’s official! Trezor has released a new firmware update for devices containing, among other improvements, full support for GoChain! How do I update my Trezor? Please follow the instructions on Trezor’s website here. Trezor Wallet interface will offer the firmware update for your Trezor One. Please make sure you have the correct recovery seed nearby before starting the update process. The GoChain team appreciated the hard work Trezor has put in to continute supporting projects in the ecosystem. They are a major player when it comes to sorting your funds safety and security. We are honored to be implemented into their product. Thank you, Trezor team!

https://medium.com/gochain/gochain-now-officially-supported-by-trezor-6a85cb231814

[]

2018-08-31 17:47:15.227000+00:00

['Trezor', 'Ethereum', 'Wallet', 'Bitcoin', 'Hardware']

A woman no one cried for.

A woman no one cried for. Have you ever thought a mayor shoot his wife and don’t pay back? Or a woman dies and no one cries for??Well, surprisingly it happened, here in Tehran. June 2020 explosive allegations against former mayor of Tehran had hit the headlines. He was accused of murdering his wife Mitra. Victim was his second wife, 35 years old. She had a son of his previous marriage who lived with her after divorce and remarriage. Mitra and mayor were married two years ago. During these two years based on what neighbors said, they had quarrels and she had been subjected to physical violence. On the day murdering happened, mayor called his driver he gave driver two bags one black and one brown accompanying some letters and ask him deliver them to his daughter Baran. When baran received stuffs, in very first place she read the letter which mayor asked everybody to forgive him and he was ready for death and he is going to commit suicide. Baran asked driver to take her to mitras house also after reading letters. They nocked, nobody answered. Driver had key. Baran asked him to open the door. Nobody was home and due to moving in recently there were a lot of boxes. Baran heard driver scrims. She ran into bath. Mitra’s bod was in bathtub. Covered in blood, she called Ambulance and they asked her to do CPR until they arrive. In first push Baran saw the blood is running out of Mitra’s chest there was a bullet penetration. She was dead.her son a 16 year old boy witnessed these. He came in only 5 min after Baran and driver entrance. After 30min mayors sun in law joined his wife and the driver. The crime was committed in most violent way when poor woman was lied down in Bathtub and the murderer had shot five times. VCC cams had record mayor went out of home; Police called him, mayors mobile was off. So they suspect him and after 24 hours or more he had been arrested and without waste of time he made confession, I shoot my wife and left the home. At very first jurisdiction investigations murderer attorneys tried to prove that Mitra had sexual relationship out of marital and Islamic frame so based on Islam killing her was halal and if having sex had been proved to brother or father or husband it is not a crime it’s a duty actually. Although they could not prove it but by admitting Mitras dad and brother Mayors family paid the blood money and former mayor was only given 7 years prison sentence. Who believes that a woman life ment nothing in Male-dominated society and the news were covered in a way that people find her guilty and no one fill sorry, feel sympathy. This story is normal here. Men kill women for their social prestige. Here in Iran women are second hand citizens, marginalized group which play important role in society and work same as men even better but are neglected. We women, we are neglected.

https://medium.com/@mahboobehshrf/a-woman-no-one-cried-for-7118c23487a2

['Mahboobeh Sharifi']

2020-11-06 09:26:02.625000+00:00

['Metoo', 'Women']

Is Project Management the Right Career Path for You?

Is Project Management the Right Career Path for You? Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash Project Management is a popular career choice for young graduates, and also a skillset that is in high demand amongst employers. And the demand for project managers is predicted to grow even faster, in fact, that any other occupation over the coming decade. A great way to gain exposure to all sorts of projects and industries, you will find project manager roles in all organizations — large and small. Getting things done right is the bread and butter of any company, after all, and project managers are a key part of this. Wondering whether this could be a suitable career path for you? While I’m all for developing your own skills and improving on your weaknesses, there are some inner traits that will make Project Management a more natural choice for you. Read on for the top 3 qualities you should ideally have, before jumping into a Project Management career.

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/is-project-management-the-right-career-path-for-you-heres-how-to-find-out-90ed069397ce

['Clément Bourcart']

2020-12-29 15:11:41.433000+00:00

['Career Advice', 'Careers', 'Project Management', 'Jobs', 'Work']

What Is An ICO or Initial Coin Offering?

Find out exactly what an ICO is and why they are an important tool for those seeking to raise capital directly. What is an ICO? Raising money for a new project can be a daunting task! Traditionally there are a lot of hoops, and middlemen along the way, that you would need to jump through in order to raise a significant amount of capital. In recent years we have seen the rise of “crowdfunding” which is a more direct way to raise funds from your supporters and fans versus turning to traditional investors for startup cash. Cryptocurrencies have their own type of crowdfunding called Initial Coin Offerings (ICO’s), and they have helped to propel an ever-increasing stable of cryptocurrency startups. Initial Coin Offering Breakdown ICO’s are today’s most popular way for a new blockchain or cryptocurrency based project to raise money directly from their supporters. The first step for any company want to raise money this way is to create their very own cryptocurrency. This newly created coin is then sold directly to investors for the first time before the project is officially launched. This is where we get the “initial” part of Initial Coin Offering. You can think of it like a digital stock certificate, but instead of owning a piece of the actual company you are invested in the utility of the product. Once the set limit of coins are sold, the project moves from the ICO phase into development. Typically this is when a coin is listed on a major exchange for trading. Investors love ICO’s because it allows them to speculate and get in cheap on a project before it hits “the market”, while it enables the startup to receive much needed capital to develop their product. To date, the ICO world is also very unregulated which has made them incredibly popular in the last few years. Red Hot ICOs It’s no doubt that ICO’s are on fire! It seems you can’t surf your favorite websites or social media without seeing someone promoting the next “red hot ICO”. Everyone wants a piece of the action and an ICO is a low cost and easy way for people to jump on your new projects blazing bandwagon. To date, there has been well over 2 billion invested in ICO’s spread across a dynamic range of product applications. We have even seen popular ICO’s sell millions of dollars worth of tokens in just the first few hours of launching! The big hit example of 2017 was the Tezos ICO where they raised a staggering 232 million worth of ETH (now around $450 million at the time of writing this article!) making Tezos the largest ICO to date. Here is a chart from CoinDesk’s ICOtracker which is a great resource, it shows you just how explosive ICO’s were in 2017! All-Time Cumulative ICO Funding (via Coindesk) What About Regulation? One of the best aspects of an ICO is that they make it easy for individuals that are not experienced traders to get involved with just about any level of investment. Because ICO’s are not currently regulated it’s like a digital gold rush of crowd-sourced funding. In 2017 we saw quite a few examples of scam ICO’s that garnered millions in funds from supporters then quickly closed up shop taking all that funding with them. Seeing such explosive growth, even the SEC had to step in and state that certain ICO’s may be considered a “security” which would be regulated by US laws. The looming fear of “regulation” is a daily worry for many, but in the case of ICO’s it would be a welcomed oversight in a very unregulated financial market. Regardless of the risks, developers are still jumping on board with ICO’s along with their supporters looking for the next big coin to make a massive run up in price. The Conclusion Initial Coin Offerings are not going away any time soon. Despite a few drawbacks, the benefits of being able to raise funds directly from individuals without having to use a middleman is just too appealing to pass up. For the investor, an ICO gives you a direct way to support a project before it hits the masses. For the most part an ICO is a win/win for all parties. Like any investment, do your own research before investing. These ICO’s are a dime a dozen these days and many of them are just a whitepaper and a dream. If the only information you have about a new coin is a Facebook post that says “it will moon soon!!!” it’s probably high time you thought about doing your own coin homework!

https://medium.com/totle/what-is-an-ico-or-initial-coin-offering-3cf2776f4467

[]

2018-03-02 02:13:38.469000+00:00

['Crypto', 'ICO', 'Crypto 101', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin']

What is 10DLC, and Why Should You Care?

10DLC stands for Ten Digit Long Code. Those who are familiar with United States phone numbers know that they’re made up of ten digits: a three-digit area code followed by a seven-digit number that identifies a person or business. A 10DLC is, essentially, a phone number in the United States. But more accurately, it is a phone number specifically sanctioned by telecom carriers for use in business messaging. In this post, we’ll look at the benefits of 10DLC for your business and the necessary steps to get started with 10DLC. Along the way, we’ll consider options for leveraging existing services to simplify the process of starting your 10DLC journey. 10DLC: numbers for customer communication The use of 10DLC for business messaging is championed by the major telecoms to help protect their customers from spam and the misuse of traditional phone numbers and toll-free text numbers. 10DLC is designed for businesses that want to communicate directly with their customers for low-volume use cases like notifications, reminders, or multi-factor authentications. Sometimes, 10DLC is used interchangeably with A2P, which stands for application-to-person. Other times, you’ll see A2P and 10DLC used together. They all refer to the same thing. What benefits do you get with 10DLC? The major benefit you get with 10DLC is consistency. You’re contacting your customer base because you need to provide information or get them to take action in some way. Examples include the following: Provide a login code for two-factor authentication Remind a patient of a scheduled appointment Notify meet-up attendees of a change in location Send an updated home value for a recently completed appraisal On these occasions, it would certainly be a poor user experience for your text to be flagged as spam and prevented from arriving. To use 10DLC for this communication, however, businesses go through an application process (that we’ll discuss in more detail below) to verify their identity and document their use case. By going through this verification process, you get the support and assurance from major carriers that your communication over 10DLC won’t be throttled or flagged as spam. In addition to stability and support from your provider, you also get another key aspect of customer communication: recognition. Especially with the uptick in spam calls and texts (By the way, your extended car warranty is expiring soon, so press 2 to speak with a representative), ensuring your business communication won’t get blocked is critical to a successful customer-business interaction. You even have the option to pick a local number so your customers know that it’s coming from a legitimate place. A 10DLC also brings centralization to your business communication. Because 10DLC is text and voice enabled, you can make calls and send texts from the same number. This is a great benefit to your customers; they can text your 10DLC if they’re unable to talk or call if they’re unable to text. You do, however, have the option to limit the communication channels if you’d like. For example, if you have two 10DLCs, then it’d be reasonable to reserve one for texting and another for calls, with voicemail enabled. This approach provides continuity on both communication paths for your business, providing a better experience for your customers. The last notable benefit of 10DLC is cost savings. 10DLCs generally cost around the same as a traditional long code or a toll-free number: around $1 per month. This is in sharp contrast to a short code, which can range from $500 to $1000 per month! How do you get started with 10DLC? If you plan to use a provider like T-Mobile or AT&T, your first step for using 10DLC will be to apply for a 10DLC status. A status is a designation recognized by telecom providers that acts as a verification for your business or use case. After you apply, your status will be either unverified or verified. An unverified status generally indicates that there was a problem with your application causing your business to not be registered with The Campaign Registry (TCR), which is the reputation authority for business messaging. A verified status indicates that your application went through successfully. Having successfully registered with TCR, you can purchase 10DLC numbers and submit applications for messaging use cases (which are called “campaigns”). Above, we mentioned that this application for status applies if you want to use T-Mobile or AT&T. At the time of writing, Verizon is a bit of a special case, in that they don’t require you to apply for a status. Instead, Verizon uses its own filtering mechanism to determine what communication is spam and what isn’t. Each provider has different message throughput limits, and the throughput given to your business also depends on its size. For example, small- to medium-sized businesses using AT&T have a throughput of 75–240 messages per minute. With T-Mobile, throughput for small-ish businesses might be around 2000–10000 messages per day. While applying for a 10DLC status is straightforward, where you go from there can quickly become complicated. You also need to: Purchase (and manage) your 10DLC numbers Send campaign applications to providers to let them know what kinds of messages you plan on sending Connect your 10DLC numbers to your messaging application Go it alone, or leverage a service? The adventurous types might try to do all of the above on their own, cobbling all the pieces together themselves. In my opinion, it’s probably a better use of your time to leverage existing services that can help you manage these low-level concerns. That way, you can focus on building business value — developing your messaging application and fine-tuning your customer experience. There are different services out there that can help bootstrap your 10DLC initiative. Some offerings assist you through the application process with TCR, ensuring you get the best possible messaging throughput for your type of business. You can also get campaign management and a REST API for managing 10DLC numbers and messages. One of the tools I found out there is called Numbers, which comes from OpenMarket (Infobip). It’s an all-encompassing tool, starting with the first step of brand registration all the way through messaging application integrations and APIs. The Numbers API from Infobip lets you handle all of your number management (purchasing, setting up, configuring), while the SMS API lets you programmatically handle sending, receiving, and scheduling messages, along with coordinating two-factor authentication. Overall, these third-party APIs free up developers from having to roll their own solutions so they can keep their attention on core business needs. Wrapping it up We started with this question: Why should you care about 10DLC? Ultimately, 10DLC provides some key benefits to help your business succeed. A 10DLC gives you: A supported path to communicate with your customers. Using a 10DLC helps you avoid getting flagged as spam which will negatively impact your customer communication. You also get the support of the major telecom providers. Savings. 10DLCs cost less to operate than other options like an SMS short code or a toll-free number. Not only is a 10DLC the right tool for communicating with your customers, but it also helps your bottom line! Improved reach and recognition. 10DLCs can be local numbers that are recognizable to your customers, and they can be voice and text enabled. This gives you multiple options for communicating with your customers and also ensures a higher probability of reaching them. With advantages ranging from reputable pathways to cost savings and even improved reach, it’s no wonder so many businesses rely on 10DLCs. Perhaps your company will now join the many others who are already dialing and texting their customers!

https://levelup.gitconnected.com/what-is-10dlc-and-why-should-you-care-b8479e51f6a2

['Michael Bogan']

2021-12-27 11:50:31.533000+00:00

['Webdev', 'A2p', 'Sms', 'Messaging', 'Texting']

An introduction to web automation using Selenium Python

An Introduction to Web Automation using Selenium Python Maximinusjoshus Follow Apr 6 · 3 min read Selenium is an open-source automated test framework for web applications. Selenium scripts can be written in any of these programming languages: Java, Python, C#, Perl, Ruby, .net and PHP. In this tutorial we are going to use Selenium Python to demonstrate basic automation functions of selenium. Overview: This article gives you a brief idea on these topics: Installation and setting up Logging into a website using Selenium An introduction to the ExpectedCondition class of selenium Installation and Setting up: Installing any package in python has always been a piece of cake, just pip install it. pip install selenium Hold on, only half of the job is done. You have to download the webdriver for the browser which you are going to use for automation. Check for the browser version in your browser settings and download the webdriver that matches your browser version. For Chrome, you can download it from here. Extract the downloaded zip file and save the webdriver in an accessible directory. That’s it, you have finished setting up selenium python on your machine. Logging into a website using Selenium: As you are all set up, now its time to write your first selenium code to enter login credentials and login to website. Start by importing the necessary packages. from selenium import webdriver from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys import time Set the path of the webdriver to the path where your browser’s web driver is present. PATH = "path_to_your_webdriver" driver = webdriver.Chrome(PATH) Open the login webpage using driver.get() method. Selenium provides a bunch of methods for finding elements in a webpage which include: find_element_by_id find_element_by_class_name find_element_by_xpath find_element_by_css_selector Here you are going to use the find_element_by_id method to find the username and password textboxes. You can know the id of any web element by inspecting the element in the web browser. This applies for class name, xpath, css selector, name etc. Here username is the id of the username textbox. driver.get('https://demo.applitools.com/') time.sleep(5) USERNAME='dummy@email.com' PASSWORD='dummy' email = driver.find_element_by_id('username') email.send_keys(USERNAME) password = driver.find_element_by_id('password') password.send_keys(PASSWORD) This code opens a dummy online banking login page. After you find a textbox, you need to enter the details. For this you have to use the send_keys method. sign_in = driver.find_element_by_id('log-in') sign_in.click() After entering credentials the submit button is clicked and that’s it you have successfully logged in to the website. The browser closes automatically after the login process has completed, even before it opens the logged in web page. Feel free to put the program to sleep for a few seconds to get to the logged in web page. time.sleep(10) An introduction to the ExpectedConditions class of Selenium: The ExpectedCondition module provides methods to check whether certain conditions are met before proceeding further in the code execution. For example the presence_of_element_located method of the ExpectedConditions module checks for the presence of a particular element in the webpage and returns the element if it is found. This method can be used along with WebDriverWait module to make the code wait for a specified amount of time and check for the presence of a certain element. This comes in handy when we have a poor network connection or the website’s server is slow. To explain about this a bit more, consider the situation in which you are using the find_element_by method to hunt for an element. If it doesn’t find the web element, it raises a NoSuchElementException and halts the code execution immediately (Yeah, of course, you can specify it inside a try-catch block and make the code continue it’s execution). You can prevent this behavior by using the modules WebDriverWait and ExpectedConditions. from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC username=WebDriverWait(driver,10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID,"username"))) username.send_keys("dummy@gmail.com") And that’s it. You have been introduced into the world of web automation. Happy Automating!

https://medium.com/featurepreneur/an-introduction-to-web-automation-using-selenium-python-2ad84814b11c

[]

2021-04-06 13:13:26.997000+00:00

['Selenium', 'Selenium Webdriver', 'Web Automation', 'Selenium Test Automation']

On the Danube (A Dunán)

On the Danube Raging storms and rushing boats, oh River Countless clefts to your bosom deliver! And how deep the wound, and how long the rift! More so than what passions on hearts inflict. But after the boats depart, and the storms quell: The gashes heal, once again all is well. Yet once the human heart a crack sustains: No ointment will seal the wound, mend the pains.

https://joevaradi.medium.com/on-the-danube-a-dun%C3%A1n-e453184c2398

['Joe Váradi']

2020-03-13 22:55:32.801000+00:00

['Translation', 'Love', 'Relationships', 'Poetry', 'Hungary']

The Hardest Parts About Being a Good Person

“Maturity,” says 19th-century philosopher and American poet, naturalist, and champion of civil liberties, Henry David Thoreau, “is when all of your mirrors turn into windows.” This one sentence just has so many layers to it. In one sense, our mirrors that serve us in helping us in our projects of vanity, our internal mental circuit that masks the world in an opaque reflection, tainting it with the jaded tinge of our subjectivity, turns into a clear and translucent gateway to the unhindered and unaffected world around us. We spend so much time in our youths inventing ourselves, struggling to discover who we are, and building our lives and reputations. We need to use mirrors for this process. We need to look inward as we carry ourselves through life on our respective voyages of self-exploration. When we become mature, when we become better and grow into the healthy adults we will (hopefully) inevitably become, the world becomes clear, crisp, and our focus is more on our place in the world, rather than the world’s place in making sure it accurately reflects us. One of the bittersweet moments of maturation is the sour flavor of learning that not everyone matures at the same rate. All too often, we make it to the mountain top, only to find ourselves isolated and alone. Looking around we realize that others still have a long way to go. The consolation, here, is that we get to grow further as we realize we need to learn the patience and empathy needed to understand others who haven’t quite yet made it to this level. And growth brings its own rewards, even though the difficult and laborious times that we might encounter. I am of the belief that our relationships of all stripes, from familial to romantic relationships, can only possibly be as good as the amount of maturity we reach and our respective partners reach. If there was a relationship ceiling, a point which we could not transcend and it just can’t get any better, that ceiling is built with the raw materials of each partner’s respective maturities. This is how I view human relations. How many of us have been caught up in a relationship where we’ve been waiting for someone else to mature, trying diligently, might I add, and all for what? Only to inevitably leave in the realization that people mature at their own rate and through their own life experiences. One thing our culture, here in the west, seems seriously devoid of is any sense of virtue ethics. Without diving too far into it, I’ll just say that I believe that we all have a responsibility to be a good person and to constantly strive to become a better person. Both for ourselves and others. What is time but squandered if it isn’t being used to better our lives and the lives of those around us? Of course, this has its limits. We should take time to enjoy ourselves, as well, especially with other people. Game Theory and Human Ethics Becoming a better person is a process and one that brings about some challenges of its own. Prisoner’s Dilemma is an interesting little paradox in game theory, an imaginary world wherein two prisoners are accused of a horrible crime. They are questioned in separate concrete rooms, isolated from one another where they cannot communicate or otherwise exchange information. The prosecutors and detectives on the case are trying to get them to confess. If either one confesses and the other does not, the one who confessed will be released and face no jail time, but the other will be imprisoned for 20 years. If both confess, they’ll both be sentenced to 15 years. If neither of them confesses they’ll be released in just a few short months without charges, for there wasn’t enough evidence to hold them. It is in each prisoner’s own self-interest to snitch in this hypothetical world, but it’s paradoxically in both of their best interests to stay silent. Becoming a better person is like this, as we grow, the fruits of our growth depend on other people, and their growth as well. But part of being a better person is helping other people grow into more mature people. One major lesson I’ve learned in life is that just because you have value to offer, doesn’t mean that others are capable of recognizing and understanding that value, especially as valuable. The best violin maker in the world would be useless if he ended up stranded on a deserted island with a remote culture that had no conception of violins or music. This is how being a good person is for many people is, it’s honestly a lot of hard work and a frequent lack of recognition for that hard work. But being a good person is its own reward and is just about always worth it. It’s a Thankless Job Being a good person is a thankless job, more often than not. Not a lot of people will recognize the virtuous deeds you do for them. Sometimes, they won’t even know they happened. This is because one of the first steps toward being a good person requires us to carry out good acts, not for recognition’s sake, but for the sake of themselves. Virtue isn’t virtuous because we’ll receive praise, virtue is virtuous because it couldn’t be anything but virtuous without degrading its authenticity. We must push ourselves to become better people until it’s incongruous with our natures to not be good people. To give you an example of what I mean, when I was 21 years old I entered a restaurant to get myself a nice, hearty burger. In front of me was a patron who was clearly mentally and physically challenged. I couldn’t tell you what growth disorder he suffered from but it was apparent by looking at him. The woman behind the counter was trying her best to explain to him that he was several dollars short of being able to purchase the meal he was asking for, but he wasn’t quite grasping the concept of money needing to be a certain amount before she could give him his sandwich. I raised my hand in the air and got her attention from behind him and held up my card. She got the hint. She moved him along and I paid for his meal with mine. He got his meal and went about his life in total ignorance of what had just happened. Fifteen years later, and I’ve mostly kept that story to myself. Why would I need to go around bragging about it all the time? Would that really impress anybody? Of course not. That would’ve made me a braggart. But the point here isn’t to brag, it’s to demonstrate how much of what we do in life will be lost in the eyes of others. That’s just how it is, we should accept it, and move on. But the unseen benefit, here, is that while we won’t be recognized for many of our charitable deeds, we can recognize them as deeds we’ve carried out. When my decency and moral character have been called into question, I can easily remember this moment and moments like it where I delivered to someone who didn’t even know that I’d helped them. It makes it subtly sweeter. But yes, on a whole, being a good person is a thankless job, especially in a society that worships money as the arbiter of all things right or wrong and self-interest above all. People Will Get Angry with You Yep, that’s right…people will sometimes get quite angry with you for helping them out. First, there is a rule I live by in life, never help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. I’ll repeat that because it deserves to be repeated: never help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. People will even come to you and ask for help; they’ll tuck their complaints and grievances under the veil of needing help and ask for help that they never intend to go through with. What they really want to do is complain to someone and they’ve learned — as others have stopped listening because of their constant inaction — that if they pretend that they’re actually going to utilize the time and effort you put into their problem, they can easily get a lending ear in an exchange that feels like it’s about even. But what happens when you follow up with this kind of person? They’ll get angry with you, invariably. They feel put on the spot, pressured to achieve, when all they really wanted was to vent and bitch about what’s going wrong with their lives. The best thing we can do is avoid this kind of person. They’re emotional black holes who’ll need to learn that they have potency and the ability to affect change in their lives. Learned helplessness is real and it will render you helpless if you try to help people who don’t want to be helped. The other kind of person who’ll get angry with you is the person who, no matter what you’ve done for them, it’s never good enough. The need is always bigger than what it is that you do or give. Someone might need help with rent money, having fallen on challenging times, and they ask us, and we throw down an extra $20 for their cause. But then they get angry and bitter about the fact that they aren’t likely to make it. These people aren’t capable of even recognizing your self-sacrifice. Their entire world’s focus circles around themselves, like a them-centric universe, and they can’t even fathom putting the lens outside of themselves enough to understand that you were a supportive person, because their goals failed or might fail in the future. This person is a resource drain. They have a long way to go before they can conceptualize virtuous actions as being somehow more important than material gains or losses. Our culture is deceptive in this way, it preaches unwavering materialism, yet, that materialism is propped up by the actions which serve as the causes that create the material affects. It’s illusory to only view the material as existent and important, but alas, most people do. People Won’t Understand How You’ve Helped Them Another hard part about being a good person is the fact that, depending on the situation, many (most?) people won’t even understand that you’ve helped them or how much you’ve helped them. Case in point, do you remember every teacher you had in school who taught you the basics that apply to your everyday life? Not likely, especially when we’re talking about the earlier grades in our younger years. The same goes for all sorts of life teachers and great people who help us out along the way. What about the local librarians who help keep the flow of knowledge running freely? What about all the people keeping the food supply streaming to keep us fed? So many roles go into structuring society so we can have what we have, yet we don’t even know they exist. This too takes place on a personal level. You might give someone advice or help them with something they need help with, and it won’t be until years later that they realize just how much you’ve, in fact, helped them out. This is because goodness is dependent upon a complimentary goodness being able to understand and recognize that good as good. Aristotle pointed out that virtue must be able to recognize complementary and alternative virtues that are different from it, otherwise it isn’t truly virtue. An excellent basketball player isn’t an excellent basketball player if they can’t recognize the value of an excellent football player. Greatness must be recognized trans the spectrum of human abilities, otherwise, it’s nothing at all. This means that most people won’t be capable of recognizing the value we bring to the table if they don’t bring to the table a similar value or are incapable of seeing that value as valuable; as at least most values are subjectively determined (Sartre, Nietzsche), valuation becomes a skill and something we need to practice, something we need to learn and, hopefully, eventually master. Being able to recognize value is just as important of a skill as being able to create it, regardless of the modes or mediums we choose to see or create, nonetheless, proper valuing (as an action) is as important as proper, critical thinking. Just being brutally honest, here, because of this fact, when people become good people, virtuous people, they become the object of the eyes of scorn and envy of those who aren’t yet virtuous. Because those who aren’t virtuous cannot recognize that virtue, rather often, and when they can, they become frustrated that such goodness shines, like a mirror upon them, making them question their own actions — this is uncomfortable, like the sunlight beaming through a mirror and reflecting onto an emotional vampire, a lot of people tend to recoil from this experience. Ironically, this is the opposite of what we need to do, which is to accept that the only way to truly grow is to accept that we could be better people and learn from those who already are where we’d like to be. This is the fundamental law of choosing to grow as people. But I leave this here as a fair warning to those who would like to pound the path of becoming their own version of personal excellence, it won’t be without its challenges.

https://medium.com/flux-magazine/the-hardest-parts-about-being-a-good-person-2ca6aeedab20

['Joe Duncan']

2020-05-03 20:46:04.978000+00:00

['Relationships', 'Self', 'Philosophy', 'Growth', 'Ethics']

Supernode 101 | Earn Vite Rewards Daily

2) Why are supernodes in Vite called Snapshot Block Producers? Vite uses a variant of DPOS called Hierarchical Delegated Proof of Stake (HDPOS). This is due to our Block Lattice architecture which is a novel form of Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). In HDPOS, there are three levels of consensus: Local Consensus: Happens at the level of user accounts and smart contract accounts. Vite’s Block Lattice DAG ledger means that each user and smart contract has its own chain. Delegated Consensus Groups are hand-picked sets of full nodes who determine the state of smart contracts. Global Consensus: Global Consensus happens at the Snapshot Chain level, through the Snapshot Consensus Group. The Snapshot Chain is an overall ledger of all chains at the Local Consensus level; though it does not store the whole ledger, it stores key information such as account balances and roots of Merkle Trees of smart contract states. The relationship between Local Consensus and Global Consensus is captured in the following analogy: a company records its financial transactions (Local Consensus) and an auditor confirms that they are correct (Global Consensus). Supernodes are members of the Snapshot Consensus Group, from which the top 100 are eligible to become SBP’s. Snapshot Block Producers (SBP) are the top 25 voting supernodes within the Snapshot Consensus Group, who produce blocks for the Snapshot Chain. Vite invented the Snapshot Chain to mitigate security issues posed by DAG architecture, which are well known. SwissVite is an outstanding example of an SBP. We previously highlighted them in this article. They are a team of five based in Geneva, Switzerland.

https://medium.com/vitelabs/supernode-101-earn-vite-rewards-daily-a47027401cab

[]

2020-03-26 09:18:04.475000+00:00

['Startup', 'Technology', 'Software Development', 'Blockchain', 'Resources']

How I Would Fix ‘The Mandalorian’ Season Two Finale

Okay, that should be far, far enough. So, I did think The Mandalorian season two finale was great. Fantastic, even. Season one was very, very good, but season two upped the ante by upping the fan service. And while that may seem like low-hanging fruit, it’s actually insanely risky because there’s a far higher likelihood that you mess it up.¹ And this finale not only took on that challenge but did so with the highest degree of difficulty. And stuck the landing.² I will say that the CGI was a little weird. A little off-putting. In a way, it was right in between the digital Moff Tarkin and the digital Princess Leia in Rogue One. It has also been four years since that movie, so you’d think they’d perfect the technology a bit more. Of course, this also wasn’t a movie. (But really, what’s the distinction anymore?) Still, it worked well. It felt very Star Wars. They executed the entire scene so perfectly. The incoming X-wing. Baby Yoda’s ears perking up. “Why did they stop?” The robes. The lightsaber. “A Jedi.” The glowing green. The sound. The gloved hand. Baby Yoda’s hand on the screen. The elevator. The Force pull. The Force pushes. Force choking a… robot. The music. The haircut. “Are you a Jedi?” “I am.” We finally get to see full potential Luke Skywalker. Which they set up well with The Mandalorian having a hell of a time with one Dark Trooper. Luke slices through them like a hot knife through warm butter. And then the handoff. It’s touching.³ R2-motherfuckin-D2. Luke picking up a being that looks a lot like his just-departed master. “May the Force be with you.” And then the “one more thing” scene. Just as you’re thinking about how they’re going to do a third season, they reveal that they’re going to pivot the entire show. Undoubtedly Din Djarin will be back. I mean, he has to battle Bo-Katan for the Darksaber, right? But this is how you execute this type of thing. A grand finale and then you go out on top, lightsabers twirling.

https://medium.com/@mgs/how-i-would-fix-the-mandalorian-season-2-finale-abcf52285da

['M.G. Siegler']

2020-12-19 07:27:20.126000+00:00

['Disney Plus', 'Star Wars', 'Disney', 'Television', 'The Mandalorian']

Hooray, I’m an AWS Certified Pro Architect. So what?

You’ll learn a ton about AWS The Pro exam actually covers only about 20% of the services in AWS. So you can safely ignore things like AWS Device Farm, AWS Robomaker, AWS EventBridge, AWS Sumerian, AWS Lumberyard, … . But get ready to see every nook and cranny of EC2, ELB, Autoscaling Groups, VPC, Security Groups, NACLs, VGW, DirectConnect, EBS, IAM, S3, SQS, Lambda, Cloudfront, DynamoDB, Redshift, Fargate, Storage Gateway, … If you work on AWS for a while, you’ve come across most things mentioned above. But I always approached it on a “need-to-know” basis. Now it was time to really get to know these services. And it gave me a much richer understanding of AWS. Here are my 3 main lessons learned. It might be trivial for some, but here it goes: 1. Federated authentication is really powerful. Although IAM allows you to create your own users, it is often much better to use an external identity provider such as Okta, Auth0 or even Active Directory. User management is really basic in AWS and in any reasonably large environment, you want to manage those centrally somewhere. Even for a small organisation such as Data Minded, we are going to look at an identity provider. As we are on Google Apps for Business, maybe Google is good enough. Although I’ve seen Okta being used at clients, and I’ve been pretty impressed with its capabilities. With Federated Authentication, a user is linked to an IAM Role, and that role will get access to certain services. Just like it’s best practice to create roles for services to talk to each other. You can ask AWS STS to generate temporary credentials for you, should you need them. If you use simple IAM users by contrast, you will get permanent credentials that you usually store in a ~/.aws/credentials file. Feels so dirty compared to having a central login system. I’ve always been avoiding the topic because it looked complex. But really, you only need to learn the flow once. And once you understand the flow, it’s relatively simple. 2. There is actually plenty of support for hybrid cloud. I’ll confess, I’ve been frustrated by clients who didn’t want to go ALL IN on cloud after we’ve done a 2 week Proof-of-Concept. Silly, right? But that’s not reality. Most IT departments are understaffed and overworked. Having fancy consultants coming in and asking for extensions of their network to the cloud, and access to a bunch of production databases, which can break if you look at them in the wrong way, is really not something on top of their mind. I don’t blame them. IT infra is a department judged by how stable they can run the things that are built by a department (dev) judged by how fast they can ship things. Services like Storage Gateway enable you to gradually move data to the cloud, while at the same time, offering a reliable backup service. RDS databases can be extended to the cloud with read-replicas, and over time, you can make that read-replica the master. You can import VMs to EC2 and manage them through Systems Manager. Slowly, you can move to managed services. You do need a reliable connection. Ideally a DirectConnect with a redundant line in case the DirectConnect fails. And the BGP protocol can magically route traffic over this redundant setup. Pretty cool. Although, honestly, I’ve never touched any of these techs in real life, so what do I know? 3. RPO and RTO are a fact of life. Deal with it. I never really knew the difference between a Multi-AZ RDS or an RDS with read-replicas. Well a Multi-AZ RDS is for high-availability. An entire AZ can go down and you will lose no data or availability. Read replicas on the other hand, are asynchronous. They sync data from the master to the replica. If the master dies, you can promote a read replica to become the master. But… there’s a but. You might lose data. There is a last point at which you received data. And then a bit later you crashed. Then you realise you crashed and you take time to recover. The RPO is the time between the last data receive and the crash. And the RTO is the time between the crash and the recovery. This is relevant for read-replicas, but also for snapshots, and basically anything that can crash. So yes, also your Multi-AZ RDS database, when you corrupt the data because of a bug in your code, or in case of region outages. These are very unlikely events, but not impossible. Remember when S3 was out last year? Reality is that disasters do occur. That’s ok. You just need to have that conversation with business about what their expectations are, and what your plan is for disaster recovery.

https://medium.com/datamindedbe/hooray-im-an-aws-certified-pro-architect-now-what-89f4d8b22596

['Kris Peeters']

2019-10-25 08:32:33.064000+00:00

['AWS', 'Data', 'Certification']

Scope of Online Shopping

Internet shopping is a current marvel which has built up an extraordinary significance in the advanced business climate. The advancement of web based shopping has opened the entryway of occasion to abuse and give an upper hand over firms. This paper examined the diverse issue of internet shopping. The paper intends to give hypothetical commitment in understanding the current status of web based shopping and investigates the components that influencing the internet shopping. The paper gives bits of knowledge into purchasers’ internet shopping practices and inclinations. Additionally, paper likewise distinguish the obstacles that clients’ face when they need to embrace web shopping as their principle shopping medium. While the principles of e-commerce and online shopping are almost decades old, it is the advancement of information and communication technology and globalization that has driven the move of a significant proportion of the consumer base from brick and mortar to its electronic equivalent. Different studies and figures indicate that people invest more time on various online activities, both financial and non-financial in nature. The convenience of online services especially e-commerce, has led customers to adapt to this new way of shopping. The paper highlights the main online behaviors that users carry out. The analysis in this paper also focuses on the various variables influencing online shopping adoption and also identifies the different variables. Based on my online shopping experience Socheko.com is one of the best online shopping in Nepal for almost all kinds of the accessories. Such as home appliances, men’s accessories, women’s accessories, kitchen appliances, kid’s accessories, food and grocery shopping, etc. So, please visit it once and enjoy online shopping. Happy shopping!!! Cheers!!!

https://medium.com/@sailesh-lohani/scope-of-online-shopping-413971a33a8a

['Socheko Dot Com']

2020-12-15 05:49:16.572000+00:00

['Scope Of Online Shopping', 'Online Shopping In Nepal', 'Online Shopping', 'Online Store', 'Online Shopping Nepal']

Top 10 Highlights From My Professional Fellowship in Chicago

1. Why I’m in Chicago? I’m thrilled to be one of the 15th elected participants for a Professional Fellowship Program | Tech, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Fall 2019 from the Balkans. The Professional Fellows Program (PFP) is a two-way, global exchange program designed to promote mutual understanding, enhance leadership and professional skills, as well as build lasting, sustainable partnerships between mid-level emerging leaders from foreign countries and the United States. As PFP participants, we are placed in intensive 5–6 week fellowships in tech companies, non-profit organizations, private sector businesses, and government offices across the United States for an individually tailored professional development experience. This way, we build a broad network with American and other program participant colleagues as we develop a deeper understanding of U.S. society. The PFP is a two-way exchange, with American participants who have hosted foreign fellows traveling overseas for participant-driven reciprocal programs. Pro Fellows, Fall 2019, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina The Tech, Innovation & Entrepreneurship program brings together a group of tech and innovation leaders from Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia for a five-week immersive fellowship experience in Chicago that is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. I’m happy to be part of this program because I stand for Citizen Diplomacy which is the main idea behind this program, where individuals have the right and responsibility to help shape U.S. foreign relations through person-to-person interactions with citizens of other countries. It’s an excellent opportunity for a fellowship in the U.S. in technology and entrepreneurship! It’s indeed a really intensive fellowship program designed to broaden our professional expertise. With my fellows from Macedonia and other Balkan countries, we are closely working with startups, incubators, and innovation hubs around the city. 2. Homestay host: Playing board-games is a big thing in the Ungaro family So, basically, every fellow is staying in a different neighborhood with their homestay host. And I was really lucky to have Lauren and her husband Tom and son Patrick as my homestay hosts. They are so welcoming and nice to me. I feel like I am kinda part of the family. I’m so happy because I was staying in this rare American home that is having the same values as my family. Sitting down for dinner, all together, having wine (Lauren’s son Patrick is a sommelier, so we were tasting plenty of different American wines) and a lot of nice talks on million different topics is maybe one of the reasons why I never felt homesick. The interesting thing about me and Lauren is that we both like pretty much the same music, films, activities and we love traveling. So we just enjoyed spending time together. Walking the dogs, shopping, going to a haunted house for Halloween, Brookfield ZOO and having a proper American breakfast at Tony’s are just a few great things we did together. I’ll miss them, indeed! 3. Fellowship placement: Chicago’s FinTech Hub As a ProFellow, I had the pleasure to have my fellowship at FinTank in Chicago. In the previous 4 weeks I gained a lot of professional experience in the States thanks to my mentor George. After helping build 1871, the #1 ranked incubator in the world, George founded FinTank which is an innovation hub that helps startups become more effective more quickly. He partnered with the larger enterprise organizations and universities to grow a Chicago and global FinTech community. Afterwards, recruited innovative startups in areas related to blockchain, artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity and areas related to AR/VR and gaming. At one point, he testified before the Illinois House of Representatives on topics related to blockchain and cryptocurrency. He also led the startup efforts for 1000 Angels in Chicago and managed the ongoing operations. *1000 Angels is the world’s largest digital-first investor network that allows members to build a venture portfolio free of management fees. FinTank aims to foster collaboration and support the development of the financial technologies transforming our world. They facilitate multiple networking events and programs to encourage collaboration, host monthly seminars, and workshops covering FinTech sectors, provide hands-on support and resources for start-ups, and facilitate innovation in companies of all sizes. For a period of one month, as part of the FinTank team I attended many differet events, meetups, conferences. I was regularly attending their board meetings and also had the chance to attended two great startup pitch sessions. I learned a lot about startups in the FinTech sector in USA, especially the Chicago area. I’m looking forward to implementing that into my work at Web Factory LLC, and the software solutions we do for innovative Fintech startups worldwide. 4. Networking in the Tech community Living in an era od rising globalization, it’s all about networking. I really needed this motivational boost to re-ignite my networking flame and start building better relationships with tech people. It was amazing meeting MANY people with diverse backgrounds, from different companies, industries and so many different interests. Enjoyed the mutual openness and eagerness to learn new things. One of the many things I appreciate are the engaging icebreakers! Every meetup aims to engage all of the people in the venue and it’s really focused on personalized networking. Networking works best in Chicago, because there is a wide, robust and active community of contributors. 5. Events: All over! In the past 4 weeks I went on more than 40 big events, workshops and meetups. Here, I will just mention some of the most interesting ones: ✅Chicago Innovation Awards ✅1871 Hub tour and meeting with Mike Zafirovski ✅Customer Engagement with Daniel X. O’Neil ✅Branding with Melissa Harris, about her work with Cards Against Humanity ✅Workshops with Ellen Rogin ✅Action Planning with Terra Winston ✅WorldChicago Fundraising Night Pro Fellows, Fall 2019, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina ✅Chicago Inno 50 on Fire ✅Chicago Startup Week |TechStars ✅Built in Chicago | Tech Companies ✅Aurora | Smart City ✅FinTank — Cybersecurity with Israel’s Cyber Unit 8200 ✅Demystifying Data in Marketing |Connectory ✅MATTER Pitch Session | $71M in MATTER startup raises | Advocate Aurora Health chooses the 2019 Health Tech Venture Challenge ✅Chi Hack Night | Action Plan presentations ✅Hidden No More: Empowering Women Leaders in STEM ✅IMC Company tour | Willis Tower Pro Fellows, Fall 2019, Macedonia: Aleksandar, Celeski, me, Ljupka Naumovska and Dimitar Jovevski ✅Coleman Entrepreneurship Center | DePaul University with Bruce Leech ✅Knight Lab | Northwestern University 6. Google Office Tour & Lunch: Noogler for a day We all know that Google is one of the coolest companies with the best offices ever. But a gut-rehabbed former cold storage facility?! Who would bring an old train car on the rooftop and turn the space into one of the coolest Chicago tech offices?! 🤩 Icy rooftop with amazing city view and old train car as a final touch As a co-organizer of Google Developers Group Macedonia🚀, I had the privilege to experience an amazing tour & lunch at the Google offices here in Chicago, and I loved every inch of it 😍 Carlos Ortiz & Chloe Prince, both great Google Cloud Customer & Sales Engineers, organized this tour for me and we had a very nice talk about working at Google and my wonderful and positive experience about my work at Web Factory LLC and all of the work we do with Google Developers 🤗 This is definitely one of my top highlights during my fellowship 🙌🏻

https://medium.com/web-factory-llc/top-10-highlights-from-my-professional-fellowship-in-chicago-a7543194254d

['Ivana Spasova']

2019-12-16 18:39:40.283000+00:00

['Professional Development', 'Tech', 'Chicago', 'Profellows', 'Startup']

In Blue

Here you’ll find the bits and pieces that don’t really fit anywhere else. A place for everything and anything! Follow

https://medium.com/imperfect-words/in-blue-de4e6c32b92a

['Tasha Lane']

2019-11-04 00:51:26.109000+00:00

['Poetry', 'Haiku', 'Poem', 'Poems On Medium', 'Poetry On Medium']

…but my love wavers not…

YOUR LOVE FOUND ME Even when my doubts have captured the flag Forcing its blades through the pouch That held the love potion The very one I drunk from your lips Even when memories Memories that slapped my chest With the slam power of a wrecking ball Replay painfully in my head Standing its ground Like a vindicated accuser Questioning my sanity Asking me time and again Where my value lay Even when your affirmations The very yeses that crippled my smile Won the battle against what I imagined Could be that ray of hope Even when my poor counsels, The very chaff, those very weeds The very ones that KNOW BUT FORGET That this rose flower we are seeing through to bud Has it’s own thorns, keep trying To erase the faith in what we have Even when you and I Prune each other’s withering leafs off Painfully shedding off parts of us that perform No soothing functions MY FAITH IN YOU STILL WAVERS NOT! So I have maneuvered my way Weaving me into you Seeing me through your heart Having blind but sturdy faith in us Comforting the charlatans Telling the prophets of doom That life is indeed difficult for the blind They may have all their visions validated …BUT MY LOVE AND MY FAITH FOR AND IN YOU, WAVERS NOT!

https://medium.com/@horatioamzipaakowwildan/but-my-love-wavers-not-b7c16cea62c

['Horatio-Amzi Paa Kow Wildan']

2019-03-20 10:36:56.988000+00:00

['Love Letters', 'Queer', 'Poetry', 'Gay', 'Love']

Would you date your brand?

Do you want to start a long and successful relationship between your brand and your customers? The rules of dating could be “the thing” that helps you pave the way… Nowadays, more than ever, the world seems to want more. We want to feel deeper, play harder, live, and love with more intensity. We ache for meaningful relationships, connections, and experiences that will make us feel happy and satisfied. This mindset extend to all aspects of our lives, including our behavior towards brands. It is a tough time to be a brand, for sure. With so many companies competing against each other to engage with customers and win their attention, and so many noise and distractions taking up people’s attention, marketers have a difficult task creating and developing campaigns that will make their brands resonate and establish a long and lasting relationship with their target audience. In this scenario, customers are very much like a single person, trying to find that perfect partner to have a relationship that will satisfy and take them both on an unforgettable journey. But, does your brand have what it takes to be a good date? How do you make it attractive? First impressions still matter (for dating and for brands!) Most of the dating advice circulating the web make emphasis on following these rules to succeed in your dates: * You should be trustworthy. * You should be attractive. * Show genuine interest in the other person. Listen to them. * Be conversational, encourage dialogue, but don’t control the conversation. * Be yourself. Be honest. These could be summarized in one sentence: MAKE A GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION. A good first impression goes a long way. Everything you work and aim for could be ruined if you fail to impress. How to make your brand irresistible to date? When you decide to date someone, it’s because you are willing to commit yourself to that person. You ponder the values and attributes you are looking for in a partner, you want someone that you can identify with, someone that you can trust, someone that values you. This same train of thought can be applied to brands. Choosing a brand easily follows the same process as choosing a dating partner. Adhering to the dating rules could be the key companies need to unlock if they aspire to embark in a long relationship with customers that goes beyond a first date: 1. Inspire trust. Nobody wants to date a person who seems unreliable or deceptive, a notion that also applies to brands. You don’t want to have a poor social media presence (or no presence at all!), a poorly designed website, and even worse, a domain name that might suggest you are not serious or professional. You will not have the same perception visiting buy-organic-foods1.com instead of wholefoods.com. 2. Be authentic. The worst type of dates are those where people, in a desperate attempt to impress their companions, pretend to be something that they are not. Many times, people can see beyond the pretension and realize they have been deceived and disrespected. The old saying “honesty is the best policy” is as relevant as ever. For brands, even more so. You want to charm your customers with your zero pretensions personality, win them over with a sincere offering. Treat them as people, not targets. 3. Show interest. Dating is not only about yourself. Sure, initially you are looking to satisfy a personal need, but in order to grow a relationship, you need to listen and prove your interest in the other person. Show them that you care. And it is the same for brands. Your customers have opinions about you, your products, which you need to take into consideration if you expect them to stay with you for the long run. If you listen to them, your knowledge will increase, and gain valuable insights that will prove useful to answer to their needs and deepen their commitment to you. 4. Relationships are a two-way street. Those days, when relations were based on the priorities of one party, are a thing of the past. Currently, people aspire to balanced relationships, where the needs of each person has the same weight and value, where both partners lead (or at least take turns!). Similarly, brands must understand that people don’t want to hear a monologue about what makes a product or brand special and the reasons why they should care about them. The most successful customer relationships are about giving, and brands must make an effort to give customers what they want because if they don’t do it, somebody else will. Reach out, stay in touch, spark conversations, and ask for feedback. To conclude: Relationships are hard! They require commitment, selflessness, honesty, and trust. If your brand wants to start a relationship with a customer, take a look at the rules of dating, and play fair. A good first impression can be the differential factor to take your relationship with your customer to the next level. Brand and customer relationships have shifted from formal, unilateral interactions to a more intimate, closer setting where bidirectional conversations take place. Nurturing relationships with our customers will result in long term relationships with a deeper sense of commitment and brand loyalty. Did you find these tips useful? We certainly hope so. We are interested in helping you build a strong brand. If you have any questions or need any dating advice (wink!), please feel free to book a free consultation at MarkUpgrade, we are always happy to hear from you. Originally published at MarkUpgrade.com

https://medium.com/markupgrade/would-you-date-your-brand-e5146a3621f7

['Kristina Mišić']

2020-10-13 22:23:14.766000+00:00

['Startup', 'Branding', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Brand Strategy', 'Business']

Who I am and Where I’m going

My name is Rivka Suleymanov. I am a 22-year-old mother married to my wonderful husband Ilan. We have been married for almost three years now and have a beautiful 14-month-old daughter. She brings so much light into our lives and my husband and I learn from each other every single day as parents. I am currently an Occupational Therapy student who is one year away from receiving a BS/MS degree in Occupational Therapy. To say that I always knew where I would be five years ago would be an understatement. Graduating high school at the age of 17, I was not ready to take on the world but there were moments in my life that encouraged me to take a step in the right direction. At the age of 22 to accomplish what I have now is very inspiring to me but I know it is just the beginning and their is much more to come. I am no writer, editor, or journalist. I want to start writing posts and articles on experiences that I have gone through that can benefit someone out there. My joy in life is to provide for others especially my family. I truly believe that this is the reason I had an inner calling to become a wife and mother at a young age. However, I could have just become a stay-at-home-mom (which is amazing and I applaud all the moms out there) but I knew I wanted to pursue a career in Occupational Therapy as this profession has had an impact on me since I was a child. This year during the 2020 pandemic, my school changed things to online schooling in March, and let me tell you, it was NOT easy with a 5-month-old at home with you. I would have a babysitter watch her for a few hours a week whenever necessary but for the most part, I had to manage it all; mom life, school life, housework, time for my spouse, time for myself. This is my current situation, with tears of joy and stress along the way. My goal in this platform is to provide tips I learned along my journey as a continuing student, mother, wife. Sharing my passions as well as how I manage to balance it all. My life may not be as interesting as the CEO of the next leading business or even a Harvard graduate pursuing areas of technology. However, I do know that if I can help or provide any sort of insight, I would be happy with just that.

https://medium.com/@inayevrivka/who-i-am-and-where-im-going-854036349172

['Rivka Suleymanov']

2020-12-27 22:14:23.711000+00:00

['Occupational Therapy', 'Motherhood', 'Wife', 'Graduate School', 'Youngadult']

Debunking Myths About Islam

Photo by David Monje on Unsplash Debunking Myths About Islam Since the beginning of the War on Terror, politicians and the media have often used Islam and its practices as a way to justify their actions. However, many of these claims are simply a myth or are intentionally misleading. Here I’ll set out a few of those examples and put the records straight. Jihad — The So-called Holy War The literal meaning of Jihad is “to strive” or “inner struggle”, and it means so much more than holy war. Muslims use the word Jihad to describe three different kinds of struggle: A believer’s internal struggle to live out the Muslim faith as well as possible The struggle to build a good Muslim society Holy war: the struggle to defend Islam, with force if necessary While there are many references to Jihad in Islamic writings that describe it as as a military struggle,most modern Islamic scholars will say that the main meaning of Jihad is the internal spiritual struggle. The phrase internal Jihad or greater Jihad refers to the efforts of a believer to live their Muslim faith as well as possible. All religious people want to live their lives in the way that will please their chosen God. So Muslims make a great effort to live as Allah — God — has instructed them; following the rules of the faith, being devoted to Allah, doing everything they can to help other people. For most people, living God’s way is quite a struggle. God sets high standards, and believers have to fight with their own selfish desires to live up to them, no matter how much they love God. The five Pillars of Islam form an exercise of Jihad in this sense, since a Muslim gets closer to Allah by performing them. Other ways in which a Muslim engages in the Jihad could include: Learning the Qur’an by heart, or engage in other religious study. Overcoming things such as anger, greed, hatred, pride, or malice. Giving up smoking. Cleaning the floor of the mosque. Taking part in Muslim community activities. Working for social justice. Forgiving someone who has hurt them. Military Jihad This is usually if not the only type of Jihad that you will hear about. It’s used to claim that all Muslims want to kill the non-Muslims. This simply just isn’t true. When Muslims, their faith or their territory are under attack, Islam permits its followers to wage military war to protect them. However, Islamic (Sharia) law sets very strict rules for the conduct of such a war. It’s worth mentioning that in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, there were no governments or thier armies to protect people. Each tribe would have to defend itself. As such, the test for which military Jihad could be waged, couldn’t be passed in the 21st Century. This is because we have organisations such as the United Nations and NATO to name a few but, also because it’s extremely unlikely that any Islamic Nation would try to call for a Jihad. It would be irresponsible. What can justify Jihad? There are a number of reasons, but the Qur’an is clear that self-defence MUST ALWAYS be underlying cause. Some of the permissible reasons for military Jihad include: Self-defence Protecting the freedom of Muslims to practise their faith Protecting Muslims against oppression Punishing an enemy who breaks an oath Putting right a wrong In regard to those who “break an oath” or the reference to “putting right a wrong,” this doesn’t give any Muslim the power to just go out and wage war. It is the leader of the country that is in charge of these decisions. What’s more the Qur’an also says that is preferable to make peace and this would be an example of ‘inner Jihad’ of which I spoke earlier. What Jihad is Not A war is not a Jihad if the intention is to: Force people to convert to Islam — The Qur’an specifically prohibits forced religion forced religion Conquer other nations to colonise them Take territory for economic gain Settle disputes Demonstrate a leader’s power Many of the references of military Jihad date back to when tribes would attack each other. As stated before, although not impossible, the test to wage military jihad simply can’t be met in the time we live in. Do Muslims Want To Implement Sharia Law In recent years, certain groups have pushed the myth that Sharia Law is taking over and, that Muslims want to replace National Laws with Sharia. The first point that seems to never be mentioned that Sharia is not a penal code. There is no ‘big book of Sharia’ with standardised laws. Sharia law refers to the moral framework that informs Muslims how they should behave and relate to the world. It literally means “the path to be followed” or “the path of water.” It is supposed to influence Muslims’ actions in business, politics and relationships. Yes, it does influence legal codes in Muslim-majority countries, but it is more of a philosophical and religious precept, not a universally applicable set of laws. If Sharia was a bonafide legal system, this would mean that Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, would have identical legal systems. They don’t. This is because laws are made by governments. However, who may some Muslim-majority countries, such as Iran, have combined state and religious power to create a theocracy. Anti-Muslim groups often highlight extreme forms of misogyny and punishment in conservative Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia to make their case. What is more important to note is this, Muslims MUST follow the laws of the country they live in unless they interrupt their ability to practice or follow their faith. In the West, there are no laws that even come close to this. Sharia is a way of life, it’s how you treat you parents or how you help those worse off. The laws of the land come first. No UK, US or western court has ever implemented a decision based on Sharia. Women and Islam Photo by kilarov zaneit on Unsplash A common perception is that Muslim women are oppressed, discriminated against and hold a subservient position in society. The role and status of Muslim women in society cannot be separated from the role of women in the larger society because women around the world of all races, religions and nationalities face inequality on many levels. Muslim women are not alone in this. The Qur’an explicitly states that men and women are equal in the eyes of God and forbids female infanticide, instructs Muslims to educate daughters as well as sons, insists that women have the right to refuse a prospective husband, gives women the right to divorce Culture vs Religion However, interpretation of gender roles specified in the Quran varies with different countries and cultures and in the Islamic world. It is these cultural interpretations, principles and practices that subjugate and oppress women e.g. forced marriages, abductions, deprivation of education, restricted mobility. Many contemporary women and men reject limitations put on women and reinterpret the Qur’an from this perspective. It is also important to understand that, similar to other religions, people in positions of power will sometimes use religion as an excuse to justify oppression of women. The head scarf is often cited as an example of oppression. The Qur’an directs both men and women to dress with modesty but how this is interpreted and carried out varies a great deal. Many people think that Muslim women are forced to wear a hijab (head scarf), niqab or burqa. While it is true that in some countries with significant Muslim populations, women are forced to wear the hijab, this is not the reason Muslim women wear the hijab in most cases. In fact, many women choose to wear a hijab, niqab or burqa on their own and do so for a variety of reasons including a sense of pride in being Muslim, a collective sense of identity or to convey a sense of self-control in public life. Another measure of women’s roles in Muslim society is leadership. Since 1988, eight countries have had Muslim women as their heads of state, including Turkey, Indonesia, Senegal, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh (twice), Pakistan and Mauritius. Many Muslim countries — including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and, shock horror Saudi Arabia — have a higher percentage of women in national elected office than does the United States. Women in Islam have had the ability to vote, inherit and work for over 1400 years. It was only in the late 1800s that women in the UK were no longer classed as their husbands property and not until the 1920s onwards that women even began to get the right to vote. Cultures all evolve at different paces. This does not mean however, that we should stop pushing for better equality for women everywhere. Female Genital Mutilation — FGM This horrendous act is the removal of the female genitalia in order to control female sexuality. This act is rooted in patriarchal cultures of controlling the female population. There isn’t anything either in the Qur’an or the Hadiths that speaks of, or condones FGM . Such acts were eliminated under Muhammad and his early followers. Yet, media outlets always perpetuate this action as part of Islam. In reality, according to UNICEF, 29 countries practice FGM. Out of these 29 nations, 27 are in Africa and some of those nations are Christian majority. The other two are in the Middle East, Iraq and Yemen. In Iraq, the Kurds practice FGM not due to Islam but, due to their culture, which preceded Islam. In Yemen, similar reasons are attributed to its practice. FGM was practised not too long ago in the West including Britain and the US around the early part of the 20th century. Suicide Attacks and Terrorism Nothing is more synonymous as an act of Islamic terrorism than suicide bombing. Suicide bombing came to us in recent history during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The actions of the bombers were more so for national aspirations not religious purposes. Yet it has always been claimed that Islam condones these acts of terrorism and the Palestinians exhibited it. The media and commentator do a great job of portraying it as a weapon of choice amongst Muslims. It did not help when the Taliban implemented it in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as Al Qaeda carrying it out in Iraq. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Fatwas (religious decrees) have been given by many scholars decreeing it illegal and un-Islamic. One of the more popular fatwas was published in English directly refuting the Al Qaeda and Taliban ideology. It was endorsed by Al Azhar, the oldest Islamic University in the world and widely respected Sunni institution of Islamic Jurisprudence. Islam similar to Christianity and Judaism prohibits suicide. The killing of innocent people is highly condemned by the Qur’an and Islamic traditions. Thus the combination of the two in the form of suicide bombing is in no way justified by Islam or any Islamic traditions. Again it is the agenda of these extremist organisations to justify their yearning for power by using the umbrella of religion. In 1983, a Jewish zealot strapped himself with bombs and walking into the US Capitol with the intent of blowing himself up. But we do not go around saying either of those two religions endorses suicide terrorism because such rhetoric is nonsense. Yet today we have somehow convoluted Islam and suicide bombings as one of the same. It is true, most suicide attacks are perpetuated today by those claiming to be Muslim but, a larger look at history shows us otherwise. The point being here is that just because a fringe segments of the population carryout such attacks; it is not a belief of a majority of adherents to Islam as the media makes it out to be. Education is Key The above are just a few examples of why education about Islam is essential. Like with anything, unless the full facts are known, it can lead to people believing something that simply isn’t true. That is what has happened with Islam. It has been too easy for things to be taken out of context. That needs to change. Some of these myths are what is leading to the rise in Islamophobia. If our political leaders are serious about tackling anti-Muslim sentiment, they need to take they lead. It is after all some of them who help share these myths.

https://medium.com/black-isle-journalism/debunking-myths-about-islam-83b73eba8d47

['Alex Tiffin']

2019-04-28 22:51:00.276000+00:00

['Politics', 'Muslim', 'Faith', 'World', 'Islam']

Central Perk Comes to Baku

Caspian Plaza has a specific place in my heart. It reminds me of special people and moments that were shared. Every time when I commute to my new workplace I happen to cross this plaza. As I pass by, dozens of strangers enter its spinning gates. I start imagining their beginnings, projects and mutual stories. I start thinking about moments when we were so passionate about building GR8 brand. I start visualizing times when Leyla and Aygun chat with each other with no rush. They know they will manage the load of the day. They exchange ideas and funny replies. They use me as a piñata for jokes. We all laugh at my expense. And then lessons start. Every time when car or bus stops near Caspian Plaza I feel nostalgic. Madmen inside of me wants to get out of the car and run into there. Go to the office door and open it with the hope of seeing them again. Two personalities sitting there with eternal elegance and harmony. Yellow and black haired warriors for things that matter. There is one thing that comes to my mind. Friends. They really loved this show. They discussed it upside-down from A-Z. They re-quoted parts from that sitcom so many times. I always thought about buying them t-shirt with F.R.I.E.N.D.S on it. But this is not the point. Something strange happened the day before I wrote this piece. I was making yet another tour to my new place. Speaking with the taxi driver about his issues I froze in an instance. I could not believe my eyes. Just 25–30 meters away from the plaza there stood a newly opened café. Colors, name and design of it just left me speechless. It was the exact replica of Central Perk Café. I could not believe my eyes. That sofa was in Baku. It would have visitors sitting on it and sipping their friendly coffee. Every single fan of the sitcom would come there to pay tribute and enjoy the experience. I could see us three sitting. I could hear Leyla ask barista thousands of questions about coffee that she would never order. I could chat with Aygun on existentially unimportant but evidentially essential issues. We would sit in a shared silence. Although, it would not last too long. Someone would notice her presence. She would definitely see her ex-colleagues, class-mates, brunch-mates, event-mates and the list could go wild. I would order tiramisu and tea. They would have a casual remark and laugh about it. Although, later, she would take one or two spoons out of it. Will we ever sit in the Central Perk that came to Baku? I do not know. The last time I saw Leyla I could not hide my happiness. Just one visit was enough to charge me for a decade. Sometimes I watch their insta-stories. I see their life in retrospective. I follow their achievements. I also follow my heart’s call. It calls me to type more than ever. I may go to that café with my notebook and order three cups. I may say that I am waiting for my friends and enthusiastically add that they will come in a minute.

https://medium.com/@joshkerimov/central-perk-comes-to-baku-2c76e8d4d9c6

['Joshgun Karimov']

2020-12-22 10:29:11.158000+00:00

['Books', 'Coffee', 'Storytelling', 'Reading', 'Friendship']

Investing with Python:

Combining Technical and Fundamental Analysis to Kick Start Your Investing Photo by Ishant Mishra on Unsplash Introduction Having little experience in investing, I’m somewhat intimidated when deciding to buy a stock. Stocks contain a plethora of data-points, making it easy to experience information overload. Amidst all of this data, it’s natural to ask what metrics to consider, and is there a fast and easy way to make an investment decision — Warren Buffet is rolling his eyes right about now. There are two schools of thought on investing — Technical and Fundamental analysis — and each uses a variety of metrics to assess whether to invest in a stock. In this article, I’ll briefly describe each approach and the merits of combining the two, along with outlining several of the metrics that each camp uses. Finally, I’ll show how to combine both fundamental and technical analysis in Python, making for an easy-to-use tool to kick start your analysis. A Brief Background on Technical and Fundamental Analysis Technical and fundamental analysis go about investing in separate ways: Technical analysis uses past price and trading history to assess whether a stock is a sound investment. One of the key tenets to this approach is that the future will resemble the past. Fundamental analysis, on the other hand, eschews past trading history and focuses on financial and economic variables that affect a stock’s price. Adherents from both schools usually argue that each school’s principals run counter to each other. For example, The technical analyst believes that the stock’s price incorporates all publicly available information. There is no need to look at other factors because they are already included in the price. Therefore, historical trading activity and price movements are key indicators for future movements. Fundamental analysts would counter that past price movements and activity, dictated by supply and demand for a security, aren’t necessarily indicative of future performance. Enron is a classic example. Being a stock market darling for a period of time, its demise seemed unfathomable. Yet there were red flags along the way— questionable accounting methods (Mark-to-Market), and management’s questionable conduct — and focusing on these aspects would have given a more nuanced picture of the stock’s future movements. Marrying Fundamental and Technical Analysis While philosophically opposed, the two camps can be unified on a practical level. The two can very well lead to the same conclusion of a stock being a buy or a sell. For example, say stock’s XYZ short-term moving average is above its long term moving average (this is a buy signal to the technical analyst), and it has posted strong financial growth over the past few years, leading to a strong cash flow and balance sheet, and is poised to continue its growth due to management successfully executing on its business strategy (all very good signs to fundamental analysts). Conversely, the two camps can yield opposing conclusions on whether to buy or sell a stock. A stock’s past trading history can yield one signal, whereas its financials tell a different story. This does not necessarily mean that one technique is more reliable than the other. The point is that using the two in conjunction with each other can offer a more complete picture. Some Key Indicators Before describing how exactly to combine fundamental and technical analysis, I’d like to give a brief overview of several key indicators from each camp, all which can be found on Investopedia. One technique that technical analysts employ is comparing a stock’s short-term moving average with it’s long term moving average. Short-term is usually defined as a 50-day moving average and long-term is usually defined as 200-day moving average, although these numbers are not set in stone. When the short-term moving average exceeds the long-term moving average, it signals that the stock is a “buy.” Conversely, when the short-term average falls below the long-term average, that signals that it’s time to sell the stock. Fundamental analysts, on the other hand, consider a variety of financial ratios such as Earnings-Per-Share (EPS), Price-to-Earnings (PE), Current Ratio, Debt-to-Equity (DE), etc. They also take into consideration the management of a company as well as the economy at large. Earnings-Per-Share (EPS) is “a company’s net profit divided by the number of common shares it has outstanding.” It “indicates how much money a company makes for each share of its stock and is a widely used metric for corporate profits.” A “higher EPS indicates more value because investors will pay more for a company with higher profits.” the price-to-earnings ratio “relates a company’s share price to its earnings per share” and is used to assess future earnings and growth. Depending the situation, a stock with a high PE ratio can indicate that it’s poised for growth or that it is overvalued. The current ratio measures a company’s ability to pay its short term debt — usually debt that is due within a year. A ratio below 1 can potentially signal trouble. For example, a startup may take on a significant amount of debt to help it grow and achieve profitability in the future. While the company could be a success, having a low current ratio may raise legitimate concern whether the company will survive long enough to reach its goal. Similarly, like the current ratio, the debt-to-equity ratio measures a company’s liquidity (how well a company can pay its debts). It measures how much a company is borrowing to move its business forward, as opposed to using its own funds. A company with a high DE ratio, like our startup, may be seen as a risky investment because in the event of a downturn where funds dry up, it may not be able to cover its debts.

https://medium.com/swlh/investing-with-python-ea5da7a4a5c4

['Curt Beck']

2020-06-28 20:39:02.329000+00:00

['Investing', 'Data Science', 'Python']

Metro Mobile Case Study

FINAL DESIGN After creating my low fidelity wireframes, I finally took the final step and began creating high fidelity mockup screens for the application. As mentioned, I decided to keep the overall color scheme of the application similar to the original branding of the Metrocard. Moreover, along with the branding of this application, I created my designs with features to respond to some of the user’s current problems with the MTA card system. Buying a New Metrocard While I was designing the screens for purchasing a new Metrocard, I wanted to keep my UI similar to the current UI of the MTA machines. By keeping the compositions rather similar, users who have already been familiar with the current MTA standard can easily navigate through the steps to purchase their Metrocard. I had also included a progress bar underneath the buttons so users would be aware of how far they have come in purchasing their e-card. “Custom Amount” Feature Custom Amount A common wish from current MTA subway users was the ability to add a custom value/time amount for their card. I decided to implement the “Custom Amount” feature to the “Amount” screen so users have the flexibility to input their own desired amount onto the digital card. “Scan and Pay” Scan and Pay The digital e-payment feature was to combat a multitude of problems. For one, with this feature, users can now easily pay for rides using the current OMNY digital mobile payment system. Similar to other mobile payment applications, the user would need to verify their identity with Face-ID or Fingerprint verification to make any ride purchases. This two-step verification was implemented to prevent the chances of fraudulent activity. Moreover, this digital payment feature makes can be efficient as users would no longer need to physically swipe their cards to get through the gate. This will cause entrance traffic to subway platforms to lessen. “My Wallet” tab My Wallet The application also has a “My Wallet” tab for users This feature is currently located on the left-hand side of the navigation bar. On this tab, users can view the current cards they have in their wallet. They may also select an individual card and view the card’s current balance, expiration date, transaction history, and access to the “Scan” and “Refill buttons. If a user selects a card that has a low balance ( <$5.00) they will receive a pop-up message indicating that their card balance is low and prompting them to refill their card. Likewise, this pop-up message will also appear if a user selects a card with a closing expiration date — this pop-up will prompt the user to buy a new card.

https://medium.com/@ghosal-monica/metro-mobile-case-study-4ed49cbe8b4c

['Monica Ghosal']

2020-11-07 02:16:52.641000+00:00

['Metro', 'User Experience', 'New York City', 'Designer', 'Ui Ux']

Realme to launch — Watch S, Watch S pro, Buds Air Pro Master Edition

Realme to launch — Watch S, Watch S pro, Buds Air Pro Master Edition Techberg ·Dec 14, 2020 Realme to launch — Watch S, Watch S pro, Buds Air Pro Master Edition are launching in India on 23rd Dec, 12:30PM . Realme is real eager to launch its products in the market, they have launched a ton of smartphones and products in this year, the products are great but its quite confusing considering the wide selection… Now Realme is launching three news products the new Buds Air max, which clearly gets a inspiration from Apple Earpods Pro, atleast the design is inspired…. And also new set of smartwatch, Realme Watch S and Watch S Pro….And this devices are Master Edition….Stay tuned for more tech news

https://medium.com/@techberg/realme-to-launch-watch-s-watch-s-pro-buds-air-pro-master-edition-bcf96d5103f9

[]

2020-12-14 18:34:55.561000+00:00

['Tech', 'Technews']

The Messaging Layer Security Protocol | Wickr

This blog post introduces the new Messaging Layer Security (MLS) cryptographic protocol for end-to-end secure group messaging. I’ll talk about what it is, who is behind it, how Wickr is involved, and why we believe it matters. 1. What is MLS? With the growing use of instant messaging — not just by end-consumers, but also increasingly by industry, NGOs, political organizations, and by the military and many other government sectors — the need for better messaging platforms is steadily increasing. By “better,” I really mean a whole host of things, like more secure, robust, functional, integrated, open, and distributed. Secure messaging protocols, such as Wickr’s messaging protocol and the double ratchet family of protocols, have given rise to powerful tools for one-on-one and small (❤00) group messaging. However, there remains a growing need for similarly secure protocols for larger groups, especially in enterprise, organizational, and government settings where reasonable expectations of privacy for information shared across larger groups are commonplace. Moreover, as the secure messaging space grows in complexity and importance, it is becoming ever more important for us to agree on open and thoroughly vetted flexible standards, not to mention an open process for steadily improving on the standard. Especially in terms of the latter, we currently have nothing even close. Getting these sorts of things right is really, really hard. (See the history of attacks on Wi-Fi, TLS/SSL, or GSM protocols for examples of just how hard it really is.) I personally — and Wickr as a company — believe strongly that we all stand to benefit if we pool our resources and know-how in order to build stronger foundations for us all. Nor are we alone in holding this opinion. This concern has inspired a growing collection of cryptographers, engineers, activists, and enthusiasts from the open-source/hacker community, from the messaging industry, and from various academic institutions to work together as part of the MLS Working Group under the auspices of the IETF. In a nutshell, the working group’s purpose is to produce a practical, well-specified, carefully vetted open standard for federated secure messaging. The final product will be a series of RFC documents fully specifying the protocol. Basically, the MLS WG should do for (asynchronous) secure messaging what the SSL/TLS WG is doing for (synchronous) secure transport. 2. How is Wickr Involved? Wickr has been deeply involved in this effort since its early days. We’re active contributors, we regularly propose extensions and improvements exploring the boundaries of what MLS (or MMS-like) protocols can achieve, and we’ve been doing lots of rigorous mathematical analysis of MLS’s various cryptographic properties. For much more on our work, I encourage you to look at our Crypto Research @ Wickr site. There you’ll find tons of resources around our work on MLS (as well as our other crypto research programs): things like detailed descriptions of individual projects, links to more resources such as blog posts, related RFCs we’re contributing to or authoring, videos of MLS-related talks we’ve given, slide decks, and of course, our peer-reviewed cryptographic research. 3. Security Goals for MLS Secure federated group messaging is a complicated beast with all kinds of different actors, devices, threat models, engineering constraints, etc. So, I’d like to talk a bit more about some of the most important and interesting security goals for MLS. E2E Privacy: Two of the most important and basic security properties in the MLS protocol revolve around the (very strong) flavor of E2E privacy provided by MLS. Namely, MLS will provide both forward secrecy (FS) and post compromise security (PCS). The latter, in the past, has also been called “backward security” and even (somewhat confusingly) “future security.” In this post, we’ll stick to the more modern (and domain-specific) term of PCS. FS has, in the past, also been called “perfect forward secrecy” but I (and many other cryptographers) prefer to avoid claims of “perfection.” It just seems unwise. (E.g. the vast majority of “PFS” protocols deployed today would actually lose forward security again if someone were to build a powerful enough general-purpose quantum computer, making their FS properties rather less than perfect.) Either way, on an intuitive level, FS guarantees that today’s ciphertexts (i.e. today’s communication between users) remain private regardless of future compromise. In particular, that means any decryption keys (and values from which the keys could be derived) have to be updated — or at least deleted — as soon as possible so that future compromises don’t reveal anything useful to the adversary. Conversely, PCS guarantees that even after a participant’s key material has leaked, continued normal usage of the messaging protocol will eventually result in updating all leaked keys to completely random new values. Moreover, the mechanism via which this is done must ensure that the updated keys can’t be derived using the leaked keys and the network traffic. So, for example, it would not be okay to simply send out updated keys encrypted under the leaked ones.) The idea is that such a key update mechanism eventually restores the security of subsequent communications once the healing process is complete. Concretely, this means that the protocol should be constantly refreshing its secrets with fresh entropy. Both Wickr’s messaging protocol and the double ratchet family of protocols exhibit flavors of FS and PCS. For more on this, check out Wickr’s recent research project on the FS/PCS properties of MLS, in which we uncovered some weaknesses with the current design and proposed a new version with a fix. In fact, in the two-party case, our new version achieves PCS even faster than the double ratchet does! Authenticity: Another set of security properties MLS aims for revolves around authenticity. Naturally, MLS must ensure that both the content and the source messages can be reliably determined by all intended recipients. But MLS also aims to provide guarantees to members joining an existing group, allowing them to authenticate the existing group state without having to trust whoever invites them. For very large groups involving very resource-poor devices, it will be helpful (in some deployments) to offload some public group states to a central delivery server. In line with the guiding principle of E2E security, the server is untrusted, so this state must be authenticated. What makes this non-trivial is that the state may be rather large and constantly changing, yet we have strict engineering constraints, so finding efficiency is particularly important. Meta-Data Hiding: Along with content privacy, MLS also aims to minimize the amount and type of data exposed to the network and servers. On the one hand, this means minimizing the data required by, say, the delivery service to fulfill its role. This allows privacy-conscious MLS providers to implement their servers so that they store as little data as possible about their MLS network. On the other hand, MLS is also trying to minimize the data available to the network and servers. This means that even malicious servers will not be able to collect this type of data. The exact meta-data hiding properties and mechanisms of MLS remain very much a work in progress and a great topic for more R&D. Deniability: Another great topic for more R&D revolves around the deniability goals for MLS. Intuitively, deniability means that honest users can deny things about their past interactions, much like having an (un-recorded) real-life conversation with someone is deniable after the fact. Deniability is really an entire spectrum of security notions with various axes to consider. What types of facts should be deniable? (Group membership? Who sent a message? If the same person is in multiple groups or authored multiple messages? Etc.) Another axis concerns what information is available to the judge determining the veracity of the deniable claims. Does the judge know the users’ long-term secrets? The transcript? The randomness used? Does the judge have a trusted informant in the group? Is the informant following the protocol or deviating in order to create incriminating evidence? Deniability can also be “online” or “offline” depending on whether the judge witnesses the network communication as it unfolds or only receives a (supposed) copy of it after the fact. MLS designers are currently in the process of navigating these (and more) subtleties to explore what the best (achievable) variant of deniability is. Given its complexity, I expect this to be a security property of MLS that will evolve in future versions.

https://medium.com/@wickr/the-messaging-layer-security-protocol-wickr-59e832ab099a

[]

2020-02-08 16:15:10.317000+00:00

['Privacy', 'Infosec', 'Security', 'Cybersecurity']

AYS Daily Digest 03/12/2020 — New Reception Center on Lesvos by September 2021

AYS Daily Digest 03/12/2020 — New Reception Center on Lesvos by September 2021 Barbed wire in Moria 2.0. Image courtesy of Katy Fallon FEATURE Greece and European Commission sign letter of intent on new Lesvos reception center By September 2021, the European Commission and Greek government plan to build a new reception center on the island of Lesvos. Previously, Greek Minister of Migration Notis Mitarakis had promised to build a closed center by Easter 2021. In a press release, the Commission described the new center as a place designed to “operate with swift, fair and effective procedures.” It will have living areas made out of containers, playgrounds, common kitchens—and a detention area for people awaiting deportation. It’s somewhat unclear if these plans align completely with Notis Mitarakis’ plan to build a closed warehouse or if the EU’s proposed camp will be more open (but still heavily fortified). One thing is clear: despite Ursula von der Leyen’s claim that “Europe and Greece are working hand in hand for the people on the Greek islands,” neither people on the move nor Greek islanders are likely to be happy with this plan. Lesvos locals have already protested against the construction of any new camp, and expressed frustration that there was no consultation with them during the decision-making process. There are also questions about the planned security regime for the new camp. Although the EU statement does not call it a closed camp, it will probably be a heavily fortified camp in an isolated area. Conditions in Moria 2.0 are already prison-like, with drone surveillance, barbed wire, and metal detectors at the entrance. Will this dehumanizing surveillance regime change? Lastly but most importantly, September 2021 is a very long time to wait for a new housing situation. Moria’s current residents are trapped in tents so flimsy the wind sometimes blows them into the sea, exposed to the elements, and have very little access to water or electricity. Will anything be done to improve their living conditions while they wait for the promised camp, which has already been delayed by several months before construction has even started? If the EU and Greece cared about “operating with swift, fair and effective procedures” and protecting human rights, they would immediately close the camps and give people dignified housing. Spending millions of euros on a camp that will not even be operational until next year is not the answer.

https://medium.com/are-you-syrious/ays-daily-digest-03-12-2020-new-reception-center-on-lesvos-by-september-2021-48c606171dee

['Are You Syrious']

2020-12-05 16:47:05.492000+00:00

['Lesvos', 'Refugees', 'Digest', 'Greece', 'Migrants']

Uncovering Essaouira’s Jewish Past

Natalie Bernstien, Fulbright Student Researcher, 2018–2019 While lesser known than other tourist destinations in Morocco, Essaouira is nonetheless a widely visited city for Moroccans and tourists alike. Situated on the Southeast coast of Morocco along the Atlantic Ocean, Essaouira’s charm is immediately evident: a quaint beach town with fresh oysters at the port and live Gnawa music on nearly every street. Essaouira resembles other Moroccan towns with its central old medina, walled off from the newer parts of the city; however, many will confirm that Essaouira’s atmosphere is not one that is easily replicable, or even describable. One central feature of the city that many visitors, myself included, fail to notice is the traces of Essaouira’s Jewish past, despite their ubiquity. Although I had the chance to visit Essaouira for the first time in 2016, it was not until my Fulbright year two years later that I had the opportunity to see Essaouira through the lens of its Jewish history. The Jewish quarter of Essaouira, known as the Mellah, is located in the northern part of Essaouira’s lively medina. The Mellah, however, feels calmer and quieter. When I visited towards the beginning of my Fulbright grant, I was unsure if I had entered the Jewish quarter until I noticed old carvings of the Star of David above the doors of several homes. I hoped that these few days in Essaouira would provide an introduction to the Jewish history that I had overlooked two years prior. As a Jewish researcher studying how Jewish history is spoken about and remembered by non-Jewish Moroccans, I was interested in the contemporary manifestations of this Jewish history in a town whose Jewish population had all but departed. Upon entering the Jewish quarter, my first stop was the Chaim Pinto Synagogue, preserved as a historic site. I located the sign outside and fortuitously met an older woman who I would come to know as Malika. Malika kindly offered to give me a tour of the synagogue, showing me the various rooms and telling me about Rabbi Chaim Pinto. She said that she was the caretaker for the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery, a job also held by her father and grandfather, and, as our conversation continued, she even recalled the days that the Jews of Essaouira left the city to go to Israel. She remembered seeing the buses driving away and claimed that the Jews did not want to leave, and vividly described the sounds of Jews and Muslims crying as they said their goodbyes. While most of the Jews of Essaouira no longer live there, Malika and her family’s dedication to preserving these Jewish sites illustrates the closeness of the communities in the recent past. As I would observe throughout my Fulbright grant, a similar dedication to the past is prevalent throughout the country. As I headed to the main square of the medina, I stopped by several shops along the way. One shop in particular was full of art, old books, and other small trinkets. When I told the shopkeeper about my research on Moroccan Jewish history, he eagerly searched through his books and found two Moroccan Jewish cookbooks, one of which, La Cuisine Juive Marocaine, I ultimately bought. I later showed the cookbook to a non-Jewish Moroccan friend who, perplexed, asked, “Why is this cookbook called La Cuisine Juive Marocaine when the recipes are all Moroccan recipes?” Given that I was trying to understand the Jewish community’s relationship to other Moroccan communities, I began to wonder about the degree to which these recipes were distinct from the non-Jewish versions of the same meal (and the extent of their distinction). That question remains unanswered. Once I reached the main square, I began searching for the antique shop of a Jewish man named Joseph, who was known as the last Jewish person living in Essaouira originally from there. I had been told the general location of the store, and when I entered what I thought to be the right place, an antique furniture store, I met an older man named Said who turned out to be a friend of Joseph’s. Although Joseph was not in the store at that moment, Said excitedly showed me around the shop, speaking an accent of Darija that I had only heard while speaking with Moroccan Jews. I remember asking him about the way he spoke, as I was trying to learn the differences between Moroccan Jewish dialects of Darija and its non-Jewish counterparts. Said laughed and told me he spoke this way because of the amount of time he spent with the Jewish community growing up in Essaouira. Thus the traces of the Jewish community could be heard through spoken language today. Following this trip to Essaouira, I traveled to Sevilla, Spain for a weekend trip. I remember noticing a man who closely resembled André Azoulay, a Moroccan Jew and advisor to King Mohammed VI. I didn’t think it was possible but I subsequently spoke with a Moroccan woman nearby on the plane who asked about my time in Morocco. After telling her about my Fulbright research, she excitedly asked if I had seen André Azoulay at the front of the plane. I was shocked, and was still in shock minutes later when, fortunately, I happened to meet Mr. Azoulay and spoke with him briefly about my research. He immediately asked if I had the chance to visit Essaouira, his hometown, or if I had attended the Gnawa festival there. I assured him that I would be attending the festival the following summer and thanked him for his efforts to preserve the Jewish cultural sites in Essaouira and Morocco in general. Although I lived in Morocco prior to my Fulbright grant, my Fulbright experience enabled me to revisit towns and villages across Morocco from a Jewish perspective, internally and externally. I define being Jewish as a continual wrestling with the question of what it means to be a Jew and a commitment to engaging with this question from a moral and political standpoint. As a researcher concerned with the histories of Jewish people, the question remains. How do the defining aspects of Judaism and the understanding of identifying as a Jew change across time and space? Fulbright allowed me to begin to answer this question in a Moroccan context, and I look forward to expanding on this question this fall as I begin a doctoral program in Jewish History at UCLA.

https://medium.com/@fulbrightmorocco/uncovering-essaouiras-jewish-past-c2688227aa60

['Fulbright Morocco']

2021-07-25 16:16:03.354000+00:00

['Fulbrightmorocco', 'Fulbright', 'Jewish', 'Essaouira', 'Morocco']

Request and Response cycle in Elixir: Phoenix

Phoenix App Let’s come down to your phoenix app which you’ve just created. When you create a project or type this command: mix phx.new <project_name>` It will start the otp_app. So it means when you create your project Elixir is creating an OTP app. I will not get into how OTP works because it’s another big topic in Elixir's world. To explain this you have to go your mix.exs file and you will see something like this def application do [ mod: {Banking.Application, []}, extra_applications: [:logger, :runtime_tools] ] end When you run the server using mix phx.server, Elixir starts all the applications listed in the “application” and then it will start your phoenix project. So when I say starting an application, it will call the function name “start” in the module give in ‘mod’. So when we run the server the start function will get invoked in your application file. So go to your lib/<app-name>/application.ex file you’ll see something like this def start(_type, _args) do # List all child processes to be supervised children = [ # Start the Ecto repository Banking.Repo, # Start the endpoint when the application starts BankingWeb.Endpoint # Starts a worker by calling: Banking.Worker.start_link(arg) # {Banking.Worker, arg}, ] opts = [strategy: :one_for_one, name: Banking.Supervisor] Supervisor.start_link(children, opts) end This function creates a supervisor process that monitors two-child supervisor processes for Repo and Endpoint. A supervisor process doesn’t do any actual work, rather, it only checks if the child processes are working or dead. Since our start function started two child processes, both of which are supervisors, it also means that these child supervisors have one or more workers or supervisors. We don’t need to see the Repo supervisor because it’s for managing database connections. Now let’s explore Endpoint supervisor. defmodule BankingWeb.Endpoint do use Phoenix.Endpoint, otp_app: :banking socket "/socket", BankingWeb.UserSocket, websocket: true, longpoll: false plug Plug.Static, at: "/", from: :banking, gzip: false, only: ~w(css fonts images js favicon.ico robots.txt) if code_reloading? do plug Phoenix.CodeReloader end plug Plug.RequestId plug Plug.Telemetry, event_prefix: [:phoenix, :endpoint] plug Plug.Parsers, parsers: [:urlencoded, :multipart, :json], pass: ["*/*"], json_decoder: Phoenix.json_library() plug Plug.MethodOverride plug Plug.Head plug Plug.Session, store: :cookie, key: "_banking_key", signing_salt: "kSKZtoWp" plug BankingWeb.Router end Banking.Endpoint is a child supervisor of the main application in this case Banking is the parent supervisor. You will not see the required start_link function in Endpoint. The line use Phoenix.Endpoint, otp_app: :banking is doing a lot of things for you. To get into detail you might have to learn about metaprogramming. Metaprogramming will define the start_link dynamically with all the worker details. Behind the scene, a lot of things happening which I was not familiar with in starting but when I read about metaprogramming it got me thinking about the functions like ranch. Ranch supervisor is also which is dynamically defined in your phoenix app. This supervisor starts Cowboy process listening at port 4000 on the localhost and is configured to pass all requests to Plug.Cowboy.Handler.

https://medium.com/swlh/request-and-response-cycle-in-phoenix-part-2-f6f673d7fca1

['Siddhant Singh']

2019-11-08 21:53:02.497000+00:00

['Elixir']

Money Matters: Borrowing Alert

Money Matters: Borrowing Alert Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash Do you receive phone calls and messages from banks? You qualify for a loan! You have a great credit score! I like you, also receive messages, calls and emails but I see through them. Banks have their own business to carry on. They keep on luring people to take a loan. How does it benefit a bank? A bank charges interest. This is a source of earning for them. The bank has a system of receiving interest on loans and paying interest on your savings accounts and fixed deposits with it. It pays a very low rate of interest but charges a very high amount. The margin is very wide. For example, if they are paying 6% on fixed deposits, they are charging 12% on loans. Why are loans important? Loans are very important because at times you do require extra funds to buy things for your self or your house and you cannot immediately pay for it. You can, however, spread it over a few months or a few years and can own the product of your desire. What are the products that people usually prefer to take loans for? There are two categories of loans. These are personal loans and business loans. Personal loans are usually for buying mobile phones, televisions, washing machines, cars, and real estate, gold and silver, diamonds and stock exchange purchases. Business Loans are taken by startups, working capital requirements or for expansion and extension purposes. Here we are dealing with personal loans but the same applies to business loans. Business often fails because people take working capital loans and do not repay in the given time. They take loans above their capacity and are unable to return their instalments or they do not look at the fine print thus becoming bankrupt. What are the takeaways? 1.How much loan should one take? The loan should be taken to the extent it can be returned. Each person has a pocket that he alone knows. He should determine his expenses and see how much he can return every month. 2. Equated monthly instalments(EMI): He should then agree to set a period where he can pay through monthly instalments. This is also called equated monthly instalments. What is important is a person cannot pay more than 10–15% of his monthly takehome salary. He should try to settle for it with the bank or he will be burdened too much. 3. Payment of EMI on the due date: When a person takes a loan, he should clearly ask the date of the monthly return of the loan. He should pay his instalments on the due date and remember that the payment should not be delayed. If you skip a month, the payment will never be on time and you will have an increased debt every month payable with interest. This will increase your debt. 4.Tenure of loan: Loans should not be taken for long periods of time. It keeps the budget strained until the amount is paid off. Real estate can be a longer period loan. Mobile phones and other white goods should be paid between 6 months and one year. A car or motorcycle loan between 3–5 years. 5. Read the fine print below: Before deciding from where to take a loan, the point that should be remembered by you is that there is always a very fine print below the contract. This small print, we do not read even though all the banks providing loans state that you should read the risk involved. You are supposed to sign below so that you agree to the terms and conditions. In your own interest do read what it says. 6. Take loans but monthly savings should continue: The loan that you take is not in lieu of your savings plan. The monthly savings cannot be ignored and has to continue despite your additional liability. This is the most important point to remember. To conclude, We must remember that the monthly budget is very important. We must judge our expenses and only then buy products which are of interest to us. If there is no option but to take a loan, then calculate your take-home income. EMI’s should be between 10–15%. A savings investment plan should continue. The tenure of loan should be for short periods so that the household is not continuously burdened for small luxuries.

https://medium.com/illumination-curated/money-matters-borrowing-alert-1340233fd85b

['Dr. Preeti Singh']

2020-12-23 15:20:22.377000+00:00

['Financial Planning', 'Money', 'Loans', 'Self Improvement Tips', 'Finance']

Beer, Brexit & Big Ben

J.K. ROWLING — ROBERT GALBRAITH — TROUBLED BLOOD — 2020 This is the fifth volume of the Strike Novels centered on Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott confronted to several cases, two of them finding some closure with the localization and discovery of the bodies of two women assassinated, murdered would be an understatement, some forty years before. The action is situated in Cameron’s England with the Scottish referendum for independence in the UK background, but also with the rising desire for independence, or at least a lot more devolution, among communities like the Cornish Celts or the Scottish Nationalists. Wales is not very much present and Northern Ireland or Ireland, in general, is not at all. It is heavily centered onto England, London for the two murders, but a lot on northern England, Yorkshire particularly, for Robin Ellacott, and Cornwall for Cormoran Strike. Surprising enough other Europeans are rather very limited in this book, and in London. Apart from a few Italians who are the local Mafiosi gangsters, there are very few Europeans. The most prominent foreign family in the novel is the Bayliss family from the Indian subcontinent but in no way qualified religiously. The main case is centered on Saint John’s medical practice. Three doctors altogether. Dr. Dinesh Gupta from India, Dr. Joseph Brenner from Germany and a survivor of the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp, and Dr. Margot Bamborough, a real grassroot English woman. This last doctor is the center of the novel since she disappeared without leaving any trace at all behind her forty years ago. Her daughter hires, with her life partner Kim Sullivan, a BPS registered psychologist, Strike and Robin to find out what happened since at the time two successive police investigators led to no solution and left behind a very cold case. The second case, that of the Tucker daughter who disappeared in the same period is seen as one more murder, after kidnapping, detaining, and torturing, attributed to the famous serial killer Dennis Creed though it was never proved, and the body had never been found. The two cases will be eventually solved and the bodies recovered. But you have to read this monstrous volume to find the details. I would like to present here more general remarks. First of all, the whole volume follows about 13 or 14 months of work and investigating by Strike and Robin, the two associates, plus a few subcontractors and a secretary, on at the very least six cases, including the two cases I have already mentioned. The author is very precise in the daily life of this agency and the people working there. She tries to really bring up the real atmosphere among these people, the tremendous pressure this work imposes on everyone, and how each character copes with it. In fact, it is not very brilliant on an everyday basis because this stress brings a lot of tension between the two partners as well as among the subcontractors. This everyday-life bias makes the novels slow and long and this length is saved by the style of the author, her storytelling style which is dynamic with a great proportion of real dialogue between or among the people in each scene. Constantly too, her characters may reminisce some personal past events or reflect on the present events, the circumstances, and the reactions of people to the events. This association of dialogue, recollections, and personal reflections makes the tale or the story rather dynamic and appealing enough to go on trodding in a story that is by far too long for a simple thriller. And in the main case, the denouement is brought up when they finally realize the alibi of one actor was light and had not been checked if it could have been checked, since it was a cinema ticket which was dealt with early in the novel and will re-surface at the very end. Note the two police investigators of 40 years ago had not checked this alibi ticket at all, which is of course very poor police work, explained by the disease of the first investigator who was falling into a severe case of delusion centered on a fixation onto stars, horoscopes, and other superstitious tarot distractions, and the second investigator only did some routine check-work. Note here, the first investigator relies on two horoscopes: the standard twelve-sign horoscope, and a marginal fourteen-sign horoscope. The author could have at least mentioned the very standard Middle Eastern thirteen-sign horoscope that survived in Christian Europe up to the 13th century, at least. But I must admit that referring to the fourteen-sign version makes the reference so funny if not grotesque, certainly not anthropological, or historical and not even cultural, just the cogitation of one person referred to in the book who is no authority at all since it deals with horoscope not as a heritage from very old humanity and the emergence of humanity from the animal world by observing the sky, the stars and trying to find some guidance in the constellations. That goes back to the vast migrations out of Black Africa, even before Homo Sapiens since Homo Erectus was a great migrator too. In fact, this reference leads to the astrological psycho-oriented definitions of individuals according to their birthdate and birthtime. This desire to really give the real-life experience of these private investigators adds a lot of episodes that are purely personal, and the relationships between Strike and his family, his dying aunt who raised him and his sister, and his real father, a pop music star, are at times very funny-strange. In the same way, Robin is beyond her divorce but her ex-husband is still in the marginal background and her relationship with her own Yorkshire family is at least disturbing since the only prospect can only be keeping in contact and be frustrated because she will never have the courage to break it up and let her own parents go their way which is leading nowhere. We feel in this Yorkshire atmosphere — maybe be even more than only one foot in the grave — the specter of Brexit that was not yet born but was obviously in its gestating womb. The relationship between Strike and Robin is explored in so much detail that we are like saturated with it and the dilemma on both sides between following and falling into the sexual appeal they both experience, and the necessary distance that is indispensable for their professional relationship to remain professional, and maybe unbiased, or at least minimally biased. Those sequences of a tempest under the dome of their skulls make the whole novel slightly Shakespearian as for the tempest, and at the same time oppressive like the famous Kingian Dome with these two characters being manipulated by some extra-fictional being like pawns on a chessboard, or on a game console, under that choking dome. The last remark I will make is about the social vision in this novel, the way the English society is described, and particularly the ever-present and active segregational attitudes and prejudices against some minorities which are not racial in the vast majority of cases, but psychological (psychological impairments or dysfunctioning situations are seen as a normal, common, accepted reason to segregate against such people suffering from these impairments that are systematically traced back to abuse in early childhood, or abandonment from one or both parents, or some genetic situation) and social with extreme protection and exploitation of such social cases that live on the border of normal society, tolerated as long as they keep within their imposed and accepted limits. This society is all built, at all levels, on a set of normal behaviors, social norms, and cultural bundles of prefabricated truths and accepted fetters if not manacles. The worst possible criminal can live in society for a seventy-year long life without ever being suspected if she or he respects such norms, patterns, and Gestalten. A serial killer is caught if he or she makes a mistake, or if some investigator asks the right question — most of the time out of pure chance — from the right secondary character, or if the investigator manages not to drown in some Lego-type pre-digested solution that does not solve the problem but provides an easy way out for the investigators who can consider the case as closed, solved, though it is not, and a case is never closed as long as the body of the victim has not been accounted for. The final remark I will make on this novel is that the vision of the English society is totally locked upon itself with nearly no immigration and for whose insecure members Europe is an escape and comfortable prospect, out of reach of investigating parties and avenging bands. Criminals can live long in England if they wear a reputable social uniform and if they play it cool, discrete, and safely self-restricted to a small patch of an autonomous and unremarkable life. Otherwise, they can move to continental Europe where Scotland Yard is mostly helpless. But many of small and average English people with limited income, like a retirement pension, can move to the continent where they can have normal and generous healthcare, cheap living quarters away from big cities, and even some English-coaching moonshining work with children or professionals who want or have to learn some English. But next time Strike and Robin are going to face Brexit in the sixth volume, if there is one, and this time, continental Europe is going to become a foreign continent with all it means. Brexit is the victory of the northern English men and women who cannot see any other solution than digging down into their burrows, deeper and deeper, and never see the European sky anymore. And these lower middle class and working class discontented people can only see the changing world in which they live as a dangerous non-alternative to the life they seem to remember or imagine as the good old days. Just take a few populist opportunists in the political world and then you have Brexit, MAGA, and other sectarian approaches to the future which is mostly refused by electors and provide freewheeling opportunities to populist politicians who live because of the support they get from the main agents of this change, the big corporations, and other mind-bedeviling social networks. Where do Striker and Robin stand in this dilemma? Nowhere. Let’s go to a perfume store and buy some perfume to cover up the stench of this decomposing and decaying society. Goodnight! Bonne nuit ! Boa noite! ¡Buenas Noches! Buona Notte! Gute Nacht! Dobranoc! Goede nacht! Gau on! Oíche mhaith! Bona notte! Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

https://medium.com/@jacquescoulardeau/beer-brexit-big-ben-77528687a0a8

['Dr Jacques Coulardeau']

2020-12-14 12:33:56.181000+00:00

['London', 'Brexit', 'Yorkshire', 'Tower Bridge', 'Cornwall']

UK warns people with serious allergies to avoid Pfizer vaccine

Britain’s medicine regulator has advised that people with a history of significant allergic reactions do not get Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine after two people reported adverse effects on the first day of rollout. Britain began mass vaccinating its population on Tuesday in a global drive that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history, starting with the elderly and frontline workers National Health Service medical director Stephen Powis said the advice had been changed after two NHS workers reported anaphylactoid reactions associated with getting the shot. As is common with new vaccines the MHRA (regulator) have advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination, after two people with a history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday,” Powis said. “Both are recovering well.” The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the advice to healthcare professionals was “precautionary”, and MHRA Chief Executive June Raine said that the reaction was not a side-effect observed in trials. “Last evening, we were looking at two case reports of allergic reactions. We know from the very extensive clinical trials that this wasn’t a feature,” she told lawmakers. 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https://www.facebook.com/UFC-256-Live-Online-Free-105733104662955 https://en-gb.facebook.com/UFC-256-Live-Online-Free-105733104662955 https://es-es.facebook.com/UFC-256-Live-Online-Free-105733104662955 https://www.facebook.com/UFC-256-Live-Stream-Free-Fight-101765608484657 https://en-gb.facebook.com/UFC-256-Live-Stream-Free-Fight-101765608484657 https://en-gb.facebook.com/Anthony-Joshua-vs-Kubrat-Pulev-Live-Online-Free-106288364687852 https://www.facebook.com/Anthony-Joshua-vs-Kubrat-Pulev-Live-Online-Free-106288364687852 https://en-gb.facebook.com/Joshua-vs-Pulev-Live-Online-Free-fight-102682588390108 https://www.facebook.com/Joshua-vs-Pulev-Live-Online-Free-fight-102682588390108 https://es-es.facebook.com/Ver-Directo-Anthony-Joshua-vs-Kubrat-Pulev-en-vivo-online-Gratis-106012747947629/ https://es-la.facebook.com/Ver-Directo-Anthony-Joshua-vs-Kubrat-Pulev-en-vivo-online-Gratis-106012747947629/ https://www.facebook.com/Ver-Directo-Anthony-Joshua-vs-Kubrat-Pulev-en-vivo-online-Gratis-106012747947629/ https://es-es.facebook.com/Ver-la-Transmisi%C3%B3n-Joshua-vs-Pulev-En-Vivo-Online-Gratis-por-internet-106182041364834 https://es-la.facebook.com/Ver-la-Transmisi%C3%B3n-Joshua-vs-Pulev-En-Vivo-Online-Gratis-por-internet-106182041364834 https://www.facebook.com/Ver-la-Transmisi%C3%B3n-Joshua-vs-Pulev-En-Vivo-Online-Gratis-por-internet-106182041364834 https://es-es.facebook.com/Ver-Directo-UFC-256-En-Vivo-Online-Gratis-por-internet-108038381073599/ https://es-la.facebook.com/Ver-Directo-UFC-256-En-Vivo-Online-Gratis-por-internet-108038381073599/ https://www.facebook.com/Ver-Directo-UFC-256-En-Vivo-Online-Gratis-por-internet-108038381073599/ Britain’s medicine regulator has advised that people with a history of significant allergic reactions do not get Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine after two people reported adverse effects on the first day of rollout. Britain began mass vaccinating its population on Tuesday in a global drive that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history, starting with the elderly and frontline workers National Health Service medical director Stephen Powis said the advice had been changed after two NHS workers reported anaphylactoid reactions associated with getting the shot. As is common with new vaccines the MHRA (regulator) have advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination, after two people with a history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday,” Powis said. “Both are recovering well.” The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the advice to healthcare professionals was “precautionary”, and MHRA Chief Executive June Raine said that the reaction was not a side-effect observed in trials. “Last evening, we were looking at two case reports of allergic reactions. We know from the very extensive clinical trials that this wasn’t a feature,” she told lawmakers. Pfizer UK and BioNTech were not immediately available for comment.

https://medium.com/@hijagi2401/uk-warns-people-with-serious-allergies-to-avoid-pfizer-vaccine-f4bc133925c3

[]

2020-12-12 15:16:18.746000+00:00

['News', 'Biotechnology', 'Pfizer', 'Healthcare', 'Covid 19']

No, Psilocybin Mushrooms can’t fix you… They show you how to fix yourself.

I can’t tell you that people don’t come out of Ceremony feeling like a new person — that really does happen frequently enough. Sometimes they even have a death and rebirth, symbolically allowing them to move forward as this brand new person. However, that’s not always the case. Often people come to me thinking that this will be the thing that changes their life or fixes their “problem”. Well, it sort of does. My question to you is — do you really want something to fix your problems? Or do you want to be shown how to fix them yourself? It’s that whole “give a man a fish or show a man to fish” thing. Let me get real with you. We are here in this lifetime to have experiences. We are here to feel our feelings, to grow and to learn about ourselves and this beautiful world we live in. We are here to experience trauma so we can overcome that trauma and become stronger as a result. Like it or not, we CHOSE to incarnate here. So with all that in mind, if you have depression, that symptom is there for a reason, it’s there because it’s covering something else up that you are not willing to look at. If we magically take away that depression, or dull it even, you never see the thing that it’s covering up and therefore never have the opportunity to learn and grow from it. Thus we have the feelings of being “stuck” or “not moving forward in life” because we literally cannot move forward without experiences that show us how to through growth. These are common feelings/sensations that bring people to Psilocybin Therapy. They tell me they feel stuck in their life. They say they have been experiencing the same jobs, relationships and walls throughout their adulthood and can’t figure out how to move forward. This message is especially important to those of you who resonate with that message. This Medicine is not about “fixing” you. In reality, no pill or treatment can do that — it can only support you in certain areas, such as to dull anxiety or stabilize emotions. The idea behind working with Plant Medicine is to connect with your inner Divine so you can see your own perfection as you are today, it is to help you figure out who you really are underneath your symptoms and shines the light on what holds you back from living your life fully. It is up to you to take those insights and lessons you receive in the Ceremony and apply them to your life. The Medicine will give you the tools, perhaps even the instructions, as well as a new perspective on yourself and on your life — but it is your choice and your power to use them moving forward. This work is about putting that power back into your own hands, where it belongs. Power does not belong in the hands of medications, doctors or even healers — it belongs in our hands as individual sovereign beings. This is what Mushroom Medicine is all about. Interested in learning more about the work we are doing? Check it out here.

https://medium.com/@nadia-doe/no-psilocybin-mushrooms-cant-fix-you-they-show-you-how-to-fix-yourself-75f20f0ac06

['Nadia Doe']

2020-11-25 20:34:33.116000+00:00

['Therapy', 'Psilocybin', 'Psychedelics', 'Healing', 'Shamanism']

Qiesto — What’s In A Name?. “Kwesto or is it Kuesto? How do you…

“Kwesto or is it Kuesto? How do you pronounce it? What does it even mean?”. We’ve gotten this question a lot since announcing Qiesto (pronounced ki-es-to) to the world earlier this year. Most of the people asking are Nigerian so read the sentence with that accent ;-) At Qiesto, we are building a platform to connect young Africans to opportunities to use and showcase their competencies as a pathway to a meaningful future (jobs, further education or entrepreneurship). We then get asked how we chose the name and how it’s relevant to the challenge we are trying to solve. In this post, we hope to shed a bit of light on these questions. Know Thyself Qiesto is a play on the French translation of the ultimate self-inquiry question: “who are you?” which, in French, translates to “Qui es tu?”. At the heart of our work at Qiesto, we help young people take up opportunities that help them develop into highly sought after value providers. Achieving this outcome requires a deep focus on self-awareness and self-reflection as they go through a myriad of learning scenarios. Amongst the areas around which we hope they develop more awareness includes: Their beliefs: what are the things they believe that inform the way they think and act? How can they identify and make the effort to transcend limiting beliefs that may hamper their performance? How can they take on new positive beliefs about themselves and the world that will improve their outcomes? Their values: What things do they hold most dear? How can they build a life and career that is in alignment with their values? Their personal & professional interests: What issues do they have interest in? What new interests are they developing? How can they build a life and career aligned with their interests? Their ideal work environment: In what kind of work environment and team scenarios do they thrive? In which ones do they struggle? How might they factor this as they start and build their careers? Their strengths and weaknesses: What are they naturally great at? What things do they struggle with? What strategies can they use to harness these in order to become their optimal self? Their personal & professional vision: Where do they see themselves in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? How has this changed over time? To learn these and much more about themselves, we have self-reflection and group feedback integrated into the learning experiences we provide young people. This makes every person’s experience unique and particular even if they are going through common learning experiences. We believe that the more young people know about themselves, the better they project themselves to potential employers, teammates, partners, clients, investors etc, depending on which pathway they choose. Our name reinforces this belief — “Who are you?” Work as Fun The name Qiesto also represents the idea of work being fun. The popular belief that important things should be serious and generally, work being boring is not considered abnormal. In the industrial age, workers were prepared for this reality by going through an education (schooling) system that bored most children near to tears. Work is consistently portrayed as drudgery or as the worst aspect of adulting. There’s no shortage of memes and GIFs expressing the tragic end of the weekend or the need for a vacation in order to escape that “terrible” job. An entire industry has even sprung from the idea of leaving your 9-to-5 for a remote job to be done at a beach somewhere across the world. This is the ideological environment in which young people today find themselves. In needing and wanting a source of income, they resign themselves to the fact that they might never get a job they love so they settle for whatever they can get. At Qiesto, we think the common sense on this is nonsense. How you earn your living should be fun for you. It may not always be the raving fun of playing a great video game or attending a great party, but it should be innately pleasurable. If you will spend 40–60% of your adult life working to earn a living, it should be fun. Postponing fun till vacation or after you have retired is a pretty sad way to live. That’s more existing than living. To this end, we have designed a learning and working experience built to emphasise the fun. On our platform, members don’t work on projects, they go on missions, challenges or quests (the other source of our name). These quests are deployed by real-world organisations to achieve very clear business and/or social outcomes. In taking this approach, we introduce our members to a new way of framing work that ties into the achievement of a higher purpose, into the thrill of overcoming obstacles and into the sense of personal growth and mastery. In this way, we hope to produce a mindset shift to the idea that a job should not mean sacrificing your passion and pleasure. They can be seamlessly integrated with intention. Getting meaningful work experience can be a fun journey. It can and should be a quest in self-discovery. It can and should be a quest into self-awareness. Our name Qiesto is therefore a play on the word Quest. Now You Know, Let’s Talk So in more than a nutshell, that’s the idea behind the name Qiesto. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below. If you like the ideas behind our name and want to be a part of the broader experience we are creating, feel free to connect with us on any of our platforms — our website www.qiesto.com and @QiestoEn on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. We look forward to engaging with you

https://medium.com/qiesto/qiesto-whats-in-a-name-5f8d6d0e0244

[]

2020-05-07 13:44:20.207000+00:00

['Youth', 'Africa', 'Employment', 'Careers', 'Qiesto']

7 Keys to Successful Breastfeeding for New-borns that Mothers Should Know

7 Keys to Successful Breastfeeding for New-borns that Mothers Should Know Photo by Dave Clubb on Unsplash After giving birth, the next experience that you will never forget is breastfeeding your little one. In order for this new activity to run well, you need to understand how to properly breastfeed a newborn. Because sometimes this period feels more difficult in practice than the theory, you know, Ma. Especially if there is no support from your partner and family members around your mother. This can reduce Mama’s self-confidence, reduce milk production, and even increase the risk of baby blues syndrome. 1. Early initiation of breastfeeding (IMD) New-born As soon as the baby is born, it is best for you to do Early Initiation of Breastfeeding (IMD). Quoted from the website of the Indonesian Breastfeeding Mothers Association (AIMI) , most newborns can breastfeed themselves if they are placed on their mother’s chest immediately after delivery. Research also shows that IMD has many benefits, not only for babies but also for mothers. Even though you need lots of rest after giving birth, IMD can still be done. Even IMD can be a wonderful first time meeting process for Mama, Papa, and also beloved children. Papa can also use IMD moments to read prayers in your little one’s ear. So basically, the essence of this IMD itself is skin contact between Mama and the baby, which is then followed by the baby who will feed itself and this is very possible for babies born with cesarean section. 2. Find the right attachment position New-born attachment Actually, breastfeeding is not painful for you, provided that all parts of the nipple and part of the areola can actually enter the baby’s mouth (usually the areola at the top is still visible more than the areola at the bottom). The position of the latching of the baby’s mouth to the breast like this makes Mama’s nipple very close to the soft palate of the baby. In this position, the baby’s chin is against the breast and the nose will be away from the breast, so the baby’s head looks like it is looking up. This position can make it easier for your little one to suckle, Ma. In addition, pay attention to the position of the baby’s body. Try to keep the body, head and shoulders in a straight line facing Mama, so that the baby’s stomach is attached to your stomach or body. If necessary, use a nursing pillow to help Mama find a comfortable position. In essence, a good latching position is when you and your baby feel comfortable so that the breastfeeding process can run smoothly. 3. Don’t forget about Mama’s comfort Mama’s comfort A calm atmosphere and a comfortable place also play an important role when you learn to breastfeed in the early days of breastfeeding. Unfortunately, at this time there are often too many relatives visiting to visit, yes. As a result, Mom’s time to focus on learning to breastfeed and find the right attachment position is sometimes interrupted. If you also experience it, don’t hesitate to say that you need privacy to breastfeed first. Including if Mama was still being treated at the hospital. Prioritize needs for bonding aka the little one bonding can occur more quickly between mother and baby. Conditions like this will usually be very understandable by visiting relatives, If necessary, make an announcement that you are willing to accept visits at least 1–2 weeks after giving birth, so that you have enough time to learn to breastfeed first. 4. Avoid rushing to give a pacifier pacifier The difficulty of breastfeeding directly often makes new mothers panic and pessimistic about being able to provide breast milk for their children, so they choose to use a pacifier. In fact, not infrequently there are those who decide to give formula milk. In fact, the production of breastmilk for new mothers is not much. Over time and the increasing frequency of your little one breastfeeding, the milk production will also increase. Unfortunately, this often means that the mother’s milk is not enough and that the baby is introduced to pacifiers and formula milk. Even though the way a baby sucks on a pacifier is different from the way he sucks directly from the breast. It takes more work on the muscles in the cheeks and tongue of the baby to get the milk out of the breast, so the baby’s mouth needs to be wide open to insert most of the areola and the entire nipple into his mouth. Meanwhile, when sucking a bottle, the baby only needs to open its mouth slightly and the flow of milk from the bottle will easily come out. Understand, Ma, that babies are clever and intelligent little creatures. If they are accustomed to having a heavier and faster intake of milk then they will prefer a bottle of a pacifier to feeding directly from the breast. 5. Do not hesitate to consult a lactation counsellor obstacles When you experience problems or obstacles while breastfeeding your little one, don’t hesitate to consult a lactation counsellor immediately. These experts will help you get the right latching position, find a comfortable position for you, and help with other breastfeeding problems. In addition to mother and child hospitals, many lactation counsellors have now also established independent clinics, Ma. If necessary, also invite your husband or other family members to accompany you. Because support is needed from people around Mama to smooth the breastfeeding process. 6. Recognize the baby’s breastfeeding habits breastfeeding habits Little by little Mama will begin to recognize your little one’s breastfeeding habits. Remember, Mom, avoid limiting the time to feed and the frequency of breastfeeding. Often there is information that states that the baby should feed at least 2 to 3 hour intervals. Or other information that states that every hour a baby wants to suckle, it is a sign that the baby is spoiled. According to AIMI, the two information is only a myth and is a misunderstanding, Ma. It is very natural that when a baby is born, he may breastfeed more often. Because he is also still in the learning stage to be able to get a comfortable breastfeeding position. A baby who is well attached to the breast will not spend hours on the breast in a single feeding. So if she sucks on one breast for hours at a time, it is either a sign that her attachment is not good or that she is not getting enough milk supply. 7. Never give up breastfeeding Remember that no matter how big the problem you face in the early stages of breastfeeding your little one, never give up on the situation. Believe that every obstacle has a solution. There is no need to hear harsh comments or criticism from other people who are not constructive or just make Mama feel bad. Instead, surround yourself with supportive people. This includes finding time to regularly consult a lactation counsellor. That way, the breastfeeding process will run more smoothly and can be passed properly. That’s the way to breastfeed a new-born that you can do. Keep up the spirit, Ma! If you liked this piece why not check out some of my other pieces here.

https://medium.com/@everythingcj/7-keys-to-successful-breastfeeding-for-newborns-that-mothers-should-know-5740af677f01

['Everything Cj']

2021-02-07 14:08:37.986000+00:00

['Baby', 'Milk', 'Motherhood', 'Breastfeeding', 'Baby Care']

How I Used The Pandemic to Pivot My Business

Photo by Randy Tarampi on Unsplash In early 2020, I was still relying on my motorsport side hustle to keep me afloat but when all sport stopped dead thanks to COVID-19, I knew I needed to do something drastic. In 2012, I started the agency Jet Social. I wanted it to be a high-level full-service agency that, eventually, would have staff and offices. In the beginning, it was just me, acting like a London agency — thinking it would help me land big-ticket clients. It did OK but I was only churning out small bits of work or had very small retainers. It wasn’t exactly what I’d envisioned. While I kept the Jet Social name and operated under it as a LTD company, the agency itself fizzled out and I switched to being a journalist and automotive influencer. That worked really well, even more so when I launched the ‘side hustle’ that took over my life. Working in motorsport and writing about cars gave me my dream job. The global pandemic took that away. But I never felt lost. In fact, being stuck at home (and briefly in Barcelona) during lockdown gave me the perfect opportunity to look at my business and what was next. I had a drop in income and, even more frustratingly, I lost two big clients before their projects had even started. My motorsport income dwindled to almost £0 so I set about spending a month redeveloping the Jet Social website from scratch and positioning it as a content marketing agency. I created content, made connections, and started posting on LinkedIn. I also spent time nurturing my motorsport audience to make sure they were supported during this tough time. I put in a lot of hard work to make sure I was in a good position to move forward once lockdown was lifted. Things moved quickly because I worked tirelessly to build myself as The Expert; the go-to person in the automotive industry for content strategy. I knew it was time to go big or go home so I employed someone — my first ever employee — in the middle of the pandemic. All this was supposed to happen back in May but we delayed things because I was scared about the future. I had no idea what was going to happen. But in September, I knew I had to be the one to take control. I took on a project manager to drive the business forward while I concentrated on the content and strategy work for clients. What we’ve built in two months is incredible. The pandemic gives us a lot of uncertainty but the growth of my business just goes to show what you can do when you really put your mind to something and surround yourself with the right people. I took my business from content writing services and a motorsport side hustle to a content marketing agency with a healthy client list in six months — during a pandemic. Was it easy? No. Was it stressful? At times. But seeing that growth and knowing I’m going on to bigger and better things is so rewarding. What can you learn from this? It’s fine to be nervous about the global situation but don’t let it hold you back. Surround yourself with people who lift you up. Act like the thing you want to be and people will notice. Use downtime to build something. Don’t give up. If you’d like to follow what I’m doing, I’ve very open about the ups and downs of business in my newsletter Jess of All Trades. Hopefully you’ll find further inspiration there.

https://medium.com/vixe-collective/how-i-used-the-pandemic-to-pivot-my-business-e6e522a46aea

['Jess Shanahan']

2020-10-21 06:38:37.163000+00:00

['Business', 'Automotive', 'Content Marketing', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Freelance']

Why Would Anyone Want to be a Stripper in the First Place?

Why Would Anyone Want to be a Stripper in the First Place? Honestly, it’s about so much more than money Photo by Marcus Santos on Unsplash The moment I tell someone that I used to be a stripper in my early twenties, the questions pour out of them, a little at first and then all at once. It makes no difference that this person is an old friend or a new one, people can’t get enough of living vicariously through me and the most unconventional (and exciting) phase of my life — the stripper phase. I don’t mind the questions; truthfully, I’ve become so comfortable answering the same few questions that I wrote an article about it titled, “What Most People Ask Me About Being a Stripper.” But since I’ve started writing about stripping, I’ve noticed there is one really simple question that I see often in the comment section of my articles. This one question is frequently written by well-intentioned curious minds that, after reading so many of my negative experiences as a stripper, (like the time a customer stole my wallet, or the time a customer took a photo of me topless, or the many times different customers tried to finger me while I danced) they really can’t understand one thing: Why I (or anyone else) would ever want to become a stripper. “If you have to fake smiles and enthusiasm during conversations and lap dances, if you have to strip off your clothes for strangers, if you have to work odd hours of the night, and if you ostracize yourself from friends, family, and society as a whole by doing this job — why would anyone want to be a stripper?” Of course, the obvious answer here is money. Strippers, for the most part, make serious cash, sometimes in just a few hours. Depending how hard you work, how busy your club, and how lucky you get, you could see anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars per shift. And even more if you’re working at a gentlemen’s club where professional athletes and rappers spend their time. And what makes our level of income even more fascinating to any regular observer is that to be a stripper, you don’t need a degree, special training, or prior experience. You don’t need to look like a supermodel or even speak the language of whatever country you’re working in. I’m not sure how many other jobs allow women to make thousands of dollars in a single night shift, to eventually pay off all debt, invest in stocks, and purchase a home in cash, but I know the options are slim to none. If money was your first guess as to why anyone would ever want to be a stripper, you would be correct, but not entirely. For many women, myself included, money was the initial motivator. Who wouldn’t be interested in making six figures a year for working 3–4 times a week, right? But even money loses its shine eventually. And after learning how often we get disrespected, belittled, photographed illegally, sexually harassed and assaulted, you may wonder if money is really worth it? It’s not. Money is not the only reason so many of us women choose stripping. For many of us, it’s about control and empowerment. It’s about feminism and separating ourselves from a workforce saturated in inequality. It’s about taking charge and answering only to our inner voice. It’s about immersing ourselves in our sexuality and sharing it with the world on our own terms.

https://medium.com/sexography/why-would-anyone-want-to-be-a-stripper-deb538975116

['Erin Taylor']

2020-10-18 15:11:55.511000+00:00

['Sexuality', 'Society', 'Work', 'Sex', 'Feminism']